NEW YORK CITY—Commercial real estate data analytics firm Reis Inc. released a study today that ranked New York City as the top choice for the highly sought after Amazon HQ2 requirement. New York City's public transportation and quality of life were key to its top ranking.

The top five selections by Reis for Amazon's second headquarters were tech-focused cities: 1. New York City, 2. San Francisco, 3. Washington, DC, 4. Seattle and 5. San Jose, CA.

The report “Scoring the Metros for Amazon's HQ2” was authored by Reis senior economist Barbara Byrne Denham and chief economist and senior vice president Victor Calanog and considered Amazon's criteria as stated in its Request for Proposals for the new headquarters that included a preference for metro areas with more than one million people, a stable and business-friendly environment in an urban or suburban location with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent.

“Given its public transportation infrastructure and high quality of life amenities New York City ranks as number one in this ranking with a score of 4.8,” the report states. “San Francisco is second at 3.8 followed by Washington, DC with 3.4. All three cities have both a high cost of doing business as well as high cost of living, but they all have high cultural amenities and access to higher learning,” the report notes.

The other metros to make the top 10 in the Reis study were: suburban Virginia (6), New Orleans (7), Boston (8), Rochester, NY (9) and Chicago (10).

The Reis report notes that its analysis was based on Amazon's stated criteria, but adds that the final decision could come down to factors that were not considered in its report. Those criteria could include city and state incentives, the “creativeness” of the location could also be based on “whether or not the decision maker owns a newspaper in the city,” an obvious veiled reference to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' ownership of the Washington Post.

The other metro area rankings included in the report were:

11. Omaha

12. Philadelphia

13. Cincinnati

14. Pittsburgh

15. Denver

16. Providence

17. Syracuse

18. Colorado Springs

19. New Haven

20. Westchester County

21. Suburban Maryland

22.Salt Lake City

23. Raleigh-Durham

24. Richmond

25. Chattanooga

Shortly before the issuance of Amazon HQ2, the e-commerce giant signed a 360,000-square-foot lease at Five Manhattan West and also announced plans to build a $100-million fulfillment center in Staten Island.

Instant Insights /

Reis Analysis Gives NYC Top Marks for Amazon HQ2

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