Charles Wood
Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce Vice President Charles Wood told members of the City Council on Tuesday that Atlanta and Austin are currently the top contenders to land a $5 billion Amazon.com headquarters.
He said Chattanooga cannot meet some of the requirements, including a 100-acre greenfield site.
Mr. Wood said the way Amazon is going about the process of securing the site for the plant that will have 50,000 employees is "very rare."
He said most firms are very closed mouth about their RFPs, but Amazon has it posted on its website.
One item he noted is that companies are to tell the amount of incentives they plan to hand over to the extremely successful product shipping firm.
He said some localities are offering free land, while the city of Tucson sent a Saguaro cactus to try to grab the company's attention.
Mr. Wood said some bookies are taking odds on which city will land the prize that is being sought by most of the 50 states.