I'm fairly certain that given Target already has a hold of Minneapolis, there's no way they'd allow Amazon to move in on their turf.

It was a major consideration from the standpoint of local and state government here. With both Target and Best Buy headquartered here, it would have ruffled a lot of feathers if Amazon would have received a bunch of handouts that homegrown companies weren't getting, especially since Amazon is completely dominating them both. There are also statutory limits on what incentives the MN state government can provide, on the order of 7 figures and maybe some limited tax breaks; I'm sure it didn't move the needle at all.

Those limits didn't matter when Mayo called in 2013[1]. There's one reason Amazon didn't get any worthwhile tax breaks. The governor's sons own a bunch of Target shares.

Amazon was offered $100 per employee. The total package was smaller than St. Paul offered Cray to move 200 employees. And much smaller than the $12k per employee Best Buy got for their HQ.

[1] http://www.startribune.com/rochester-mayo-clinic-celebrate-5...

Unless Amazon buys Target. Then they've got a whole corporate infrastructure already in place.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/02/amazon-will-buy-target-in-20...

The governor's father co-founded Target and his sons still own a large share. The subsidy per Amazon employee in the Minneapolis HQ2 bid was $100 compared to $12,000 when the Best Buy HQ was built and $150,000 when the new Vikings stadium was built.

> Houston isn't there,

I had that somber realization too. Houston has more problems on its mind than bankrolling Amazon's real estate deals.