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Portland has some stiff competition to lure Amazon‘s second headquarters.

The Seattle-based company announced Monday it had received 238 proposals from across North America to host a second campus of the fast-growing Internet retailer. The proposals for Amazon’s HQ2 competition came from cities in 44 U.S. states, and provinces, districts and territories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Amazon issued a request for proposals this fall for cities to host a second headquarters to rival its headquarters in Seattle, where Amazon has more than 40,000 employees and 8.1 million square feet of office space.

Greater Portland Inc. submitted a proposal to Amazon on behalf of Portland and its suburbs ahead of the Oct. 19 deadline. The proposal includes a 鈥渄istributed campus鈥� concept and space in the U.S. Postal Service site in Northwest Portland, said Janet Labar, Greater Portland’s president and CEO. Portland’s suburbs also offered certain properties, but Labar said she could not discuss those specific parcels.

鈥淭he rest of our communities who have submitted proposals through us are not at liberty to discuss specific sites,鈥� she said.

Greater Portland’s proposal portrays the city’s proximity to Seattle as an asset.

鈥淲e are definitely owning that, because there is no way getting around that,鈥� Labar said.

For instance, a flight between the two Northwest cities is only 20 to 30 minutes, she pointed out.

Among Portland’s challenges is a tight housing market that has resulted in rising prices for single-family homes. That’s not unique to Portland, Labar said.

鈥淚 will say, generally, most major markets have that challenge,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat’s why a regional solution is part of what’s needed here.鈥�

Amazon is expected to winnow the contenders to a short list of serious candidates by December, before making a decision on its second headquarters in early 2018.