Housing-News-Report-May-2018

HOUSINGNEWS REPORT

Will Amazon Save the Swamp? SPOTLIGHT: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BY JOEL CONE, STAFF WRITER

would diversify it and it would attract other businesses,” said economist Stephen Fuller, director of the Stephen S. Fuller Institute for Research on the Washington Region’s Economic Future, Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. The three potential candidates in the metro area are Montgomery County, Maryland; Washington D.C. itself; and Northern Virginia. Over the past few years Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, has laid the groundwork for selecting the

company’s new headquarters, with Amazon’s final top 20 candidates announced in January. Now considered the world’s richest billionaire according to the Forbes 2018 list, Bezos has already established a presence in the D.C. metro area. First he bought the Washington Post back in 2013 for $250 million. He followed that with paying a reported $23 million to purchase the former Textile Museum in 2016, for the purposes of converting into a

The nation’s capital is eagerly awaiting the selection of a candidate that could dramatically shift its fortunes in 2019 and beyond. Many in the region are hoping that one of three candidates located in the District of Columbia and its surrounding counties will beat out 17 others from around the country to be selected as the new location for Amazon’s second company headquarters known as HQ2. “We have the kind of talent in the categories they are looking for. It would be good for this economy. It

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MAY 2018 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS

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