Final list

Amazon names Dallas a prime candidate for $5 billion second headquarters

Dallas has made Amazon's top 20.

Widely lauded as a prime candidate, Dallas now officially appears on Amazon’s new shortlist for the e-commerce giant’s $5 billion second headquarters.

On January 18, Amazon revealed it narrowed the field of 238 North American candidates for the so-called HQ2 project to 20 finalists, including Dallas. Austin also made the cut; Houston did not.

Seattle-based Amazon says it eventually will create up to 50,000 jobs at its second headquarters. In announcing the 20 finalists, the company emphasizes that HQ2 will be a true headquarters, not a satellite office.

Aside from the potential for 50,000 high-paying jobs, Amazon HQ2 is expected to generate tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the metro area that lands the project.

Amazon says it evaluated each of the 238 bids based on criteria outlined in the company’s call for proposals. Now, Amazon will work with the 20 finalists to dig deeper into their proposals, request further information, and evaluate how they’d accommodate the company’s hiring plans and workforce needs. Amazon plans to make a decision about HQ2 in 2018.

“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan, an executive with Amazon Public Policy, says in a release. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

In alphabetical order, here’s the list of the 20 finalists for Amazon HQ2:

Atlanta
Austin
Boston
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County, Maryland
Nashville
Newark, New Jersey
New York City
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Toronto
Washington, D.C.

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Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

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