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Amazon in the Boston area: 6 likely sites for the e-commerce giant

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Including in Boston, Revere, and Somerville

By Tom Acitelli

The Boston area has made the shortlist of possible sites for Amazon’s second headquarters (yay?).

The e-commerce giant, which is expected to pick a winning bid before the end of 2018, has said it wants to build to 8 million square feet for 50,000 employees.

Here are the six likeliest spots it could do that in the Boston area.

Suffolk Downs

An aerial view of a large park space. There are buildings on the perimeter of the park space. Ed Kohler/Flickr

The old 161-acre racetrack in East Boston is the City of Boston’s preferred site, and the racetrack’s owner is pretty much hedging its redevelopment of the space on whether Amazon relocates there.

There’s that space, for one thing. Amazon wants to eventually employ 50,000 people at its second headquarters, so it will need room to grow.

There are also two nearby Blue Line stops, and Logan Airport is in the neighborhood. Amazon has said that both built-in public transportation and quick access to an international airport are among its top criteria for a second HQ.

Widett Circle

Photo via Boston Magazine

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has long wanted to turn the 83-acre collection of warehouses and rail yards in South Boston into a new neighborhood all its own (and some wanted to turn it into Olympic Village, remember that?).

As the Globe’s Tim Logan noted, such a neighborhood-from-scratch would require a major business tenant. Enter Amazon.

Beacon Park Yard

Harvard University owns the 22-acre rail yard in Allston, which was shuttered in 2013.

It’s right off the Turnpike, but adrift from the T. (Again, Amazon has said access to public transit is one of its selection criteria.) Still, there’s that size.

Around South Station

A giant brown building. There is a street intersection in the foreground with people. Abdullah Al-Eisa/Getty Images

Boston has pitched not only a planned tower atop New England’s busiest transit hub for an Amazon headquarters, but parcels around South Station as well.

This is probably the least likeliest of the city’s ideas to ever come to fruition given the kind of space the e-retailer wants—though the area is no stranger to corporate HQs.

Wonderland Greyhound Park

jpitha/Flickr

This 38-acre former dog-racing palace in Revere checks a lot of Amazon’s boxes, given its proximity to Logan and its nearness to the Blue Line (never mind the sheer size).

Along the Orange Line

A subway train pulling away from a tall, glassy station. Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

This is the most interesting possible site for Amazon in that it’s not a single site at all, but a proposal that Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone put forward: Host the e-retailer on several parcels in five cities along or near the Orange Line.

The cities would include Somerville, of course, but also Cambridge, Boston, Everett, and Chelsea.

The idea is simple: As Curtatone put it, the region needs to “break out” of its provincialism and realize that it’s a densely packed region of dozens of municipalities that, for most people, bleed into one another (hence why a lot of folks simply say “Boston” when asked where they live or where they’re from).

Several sites along a public transit route would also allow for the scope Amazon is hoping for in its new HQ. Stay tuned.

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