Miami
Miami. AP/Lynne Sladky

 

  • Amazon officials affiliated with the search for HQ2 have visited Miami recently, according to a report.
  • That makes it the second city Amazon has return-visited within the last two months.
  • That could signal that, though Amazon said it will announce the final host of its second headquarters before the end of the year, the decision is far from set in stone as of yet.

Amazon reportedly couldn’t get enough of the Miami sun.

Representatives for the company affiliated with the search for a place to put the company’s second headquarters, HQ2, made a recent return visit, according to a report by the South Florida Business Journal citing three sources.

The visit was made most likely in September, but few other details about why or what sites the company visited are available.

Amazon did not immediately to respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

It’s the second reported repeat visit to a city on Amazon’s HQ2 shortlist, the list of 20 cities Amazon released earlier this year that it says it is considering to put its $5 billion second headquarters and 50,000 jobs.

Representatives for the company made a visit to Chicago in connection with its second headquarters search in August, according to a report from The Chicago Tribune.

Amazon declined to comment on that report to Business Insider.

According to the Tribune report, the visit was made so 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 desires 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.

Both city visits are notable, as they’re the only repeat visits that have been reported so far, and they’re coming late in the process as Amazon has said it will make its decision by the end of the year.

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, the Chicago and Miami visits could suggest that the decision is far from completely made.

As reported by Business Insider