A real estate analysis firm has Chattanooga on the list of the top 25 possibilities for a huge new second headquarters for shipping giant Amazon.com.
Reis placed Chattanooga in the #25 spot for landing the coveted economic development prize.
The new facility will be a $5 billion investment and feature 50,000 employees.
The Reis analysis considered such factors as access to public transportation, cost of living and doing business, technology, worker availability, quality of life, education and business taxes and regulations.
Charles Wood, Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce vice president, last Tuesday told the City Council that Chattanooga does not meet some of the requirements, including having a 100-acre greenfield site and a metro population of 1 million people.
He said he believes that Atlanta and Austin are at the top of the list for getting Amazon2.
Others have pointed out that the Chattanooga - Cleveland - Dalton area has nearly 1 million people.
An analyst pointed to a 216-acre tract in Lupton City that BlueCross once planned to move their headquarters to. BlueCross bought the property in 2001 and in 2014 said it was for sale for $10.6 million.
Chattanooga does not have an international airport, but is only 40 minutes by air from Atlanta's airport, it was noted.
The Reis list is of "the top 25 cities in America capable of providing a good home to Amazon's second headquarters."
The top 10 cities, according to Reis, are:
1. New York City
2. San Francisco
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Seattle
5. San Jose, Calif.
6. Suburban Virginia (around the D.C. area)
7. New Orleans
8. Boston
9. Rochester, N.Y.
10. Chicago
Three Southern cities are in the top 25, including Raleigh-Durham at 23, Richmond at 24 and Chattanooga at 25.
A recent list of 283 cities said to have applied to Amazon in the very public process does not include Chattanooga. But it does include Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville.