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