Amazon HQ2 reps visited Chicago a second time: report

Amazon representatives reportedly visited the site for
The 78 development by Related Midwest.
Related Midwest

• Amazon
  reportedly made a second visit to HQ2
  contender Chicago in August, as it prepares to announce its
  decision on where to place its second headquarters by the end
  of the year. 
• According to The Chicago Tribune, Amazon
  representatives visited The 78, a development slated for the
  city’s South Loop neighborhood.
• Amazon did not visit this particular site on its
  previous HQ2-related visit to Chicago.
• If Amazon did indeed visit Chicago for HQ2 purposes
  recently, it could mean the contest is far from over, and it
  may be more wide-open than had previously been
  speculated.

Apparently, Amazon
hasn’t gotten enough of the Windy City. 

Representatives for the company made a visit to the city in
connection with its second headquarters search in August,

according to a report from The Chicago Tribune. 

Amazon declined to comment on the report to Business
Insider. 

The visit is notable, as it’s reportedly the only repeat,
HQ2-related visit from Amazon representatives to a city or
location on
Amazon’s short list.

According to the Tribune report, the visit was planned so that
representatives could see the site for a new, 62-acre development
called The 78. Located in the South Loop, it’s one of the last
sizable pieces of undeveloped land close to the city’s core.

That could make it attractive to Amazon, which stipulated in its
request for proposals that it desired an urban campus for its
second headquarters, much like its original campus in Seattle.

Amazon visited four other potential HQ2 sites in its earlier trip
to Chicago this year, but not this one.

A second visit at such a crucial time in the HQ2 process could
throw open the doors of speculation on HQ2. Though
most analysts and experts have been betting on Northern
Virginia as the winner, Chicago remaining in the running
as late as August is significant. 

Amazon has said it will make its decision by the end of the
year.