Could San Diego Be Amazon’s HQ2?

San Diego intends to compete for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters.

The Seattle-based retail and tech giant said on Sept. 7 that it is looking for a second headquarters city in North America. Amazon’s project, dubbed “HQ2,” could ultimately house as many as 50,000 people, cost $5 billion, and offer billions in economic impact.

San Diego’s economic development community has taken notice.

“San Diego Regional EDC is aware of Amazon’s intent to form a second headquarters operation in the U.S.,” said Mark Cafferty, the economic development agency’s CEO, in a prepared statement. “Our team is evaluating the details and coordinating a regional response in collaboration with the city of San Diego, county of San Diego, sub-regional economic development organizations and other city partners,”

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) said it would prefer a metro area with a population of more than 1 million people, and said it would consider a downtown or suburban campus. Employees at the site would make an average of $100,000, the company said.

The business set a mid-October deadline for submitting proposals and said it wants to select a site in 2018.

Amazon reported $136 billion in sales in 2016. In its most recent second quarter, it reported sales of $38 billion.