AUSTIN, Texas -- Austin is on the list of finalists for Amazon's coveted second headquarters. There are 20 finalists, and one online betting site actually lists Austin, Boston, and Atlanta as the favorites. Austin's bid is a regional proposal that includes Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays and Williamson Counties.

"It’s a desirable city for lots of people, it’s a beautiful city," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said. "We have a highly trained workforce here, but we culture of caring and it’s a friendly city, an innovative city."

The Seattle-based online retailing giant plans to invest over $5 billion and accommodate as many as 50,000 high paying jobs.

Spectrum News examined how Austin stacks up against the competition, according to Amazon's original request for proposal.

Site Requirements

  • 30 miles away from population's center

  • 45 minutes away from international airport

  • 2 miles away to major highways and arterial roads

  • Access to mass transit

Looking at "best-of" lists for mass transit, New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington D.C. are often in the top spots. Austin rarely appears.

"Mobility is a big issue," Adler said. "It’s hard to move around the city at different parts of the day and there are not mobility options that are available to everyone in all parts of the city at all times."

Amazon also listed eight other factors, and most of them are subjective:

  • Site/Building

  • Capital and operating costs

  • Incentives

  • Labor force

  • Logistics

  • Time to operations

  • Cultural community Fit

  • Community/Quality of Life

For instance, when it comes to quality of life, Austin frequently appears on lists related to best places to live. There is also a criteria for cultural community fit, but it is difficult to gauge what makes the “Live Music Capital of the World” better than the Music City of Nashville. Austinites often boasts about its barbecue, but other top contenders have their own food staples. In terms of logistics, travel time to an international airport is significant. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is on several indexes for best airport in the U.S. But, the Austin Chamber of Commerce said it is focused on the city's labor force.

"We’ve got all levels of skills, we’ve got all types of individuals and when you’re talking to headquarters, you need all types of individuals to work at that location,"Charisse Bodisch, the senior vice president for economic development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce said.

Bodisch also points to the University of Texas system, but top universities are also in other cities. Ultimately it could come down to real estate deals and incentives. Something most cities, including Austin, are not disclosing.

"It is a competitive process," Bodisch said. "So some of that information isn’t something we’ll be pushing forward."

It remains unclear where city leaders have designated potential sites for Amazon's HQ2 within its greater Central Texas region.

"[Amazon has] got a large facility down in San Marcos, they’ve got a location up in the Domain in Austin, and then of course they just purchased Whole Foods," Bodisch said. "So, we’ve got a great relationship going with them already."

Amazon will be working with all 20 candidates in the coming months. The company expects to make a final decision some time this year.