Milam County offers Amazon 33,000-acre ranch site in its bid for the headquarters,

Officials there hope the company can be wooed by wide-open spaces.

Austin, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. — the list of cities bidding for Amazon’s huge new second headquarters stretches across North America.

The $5 billion office campus project has prompted a bidding war with the biggest metro areas making proposals for the project.

You can add Milam County in Central Texas to the crowded field of competitors.

Officials there are hoping that Amazon can be wooed by their wide-open spaces.

The county between Austin and College Station said it’s taking “a bold step forward” and submitting a proposal for Amazon’s new office.

“Our proposal, requests Amazon to consider the boundless opportunities of a 33,000-plus acre site, within 60 miles of 2.5 million people, two tier-one research universities, and just two and a half hours from the three major population centers in the state,” Milam County Judge Dave Barkemeyer said in a written statement. “We believe Mr. Bezos, CEO of Amazon, will find that our location will offer unique advantages among the many crowded, mostly urban sites that he will see as the proposals flood in.”

With 50,000 potential employees, the Amazon headquarters would have a bigger population than all of Milam County. It’s largest towns are county seat Cameron and Rockdale.

Milam County is pitching Amazon with a 33,000-acre Texas spread called the Sandow Lakes Ranch.

Located 45 miles east of Austin, the Sandow Lakes Ranch is a former coal mining and industrial tract that’s owned by industry giant Alcoa Inc.

Dallas real estate agent Bernard Uechtritz — who sold the huge W.T. Waggoner Ranch near Wichita Falls — has been marketing the property for sale.

The property includes more than a dozen lakes and thousands of acres of grazing and agricultural land.

“Imagine the sustainable work/life center that could be created among the vast rolling hills and lakes,” Barkemeyer said.

“Consider the opportunities for families in Milam and surrounding counties with an Amazon corporate headquarters calling Milam County, “home.”

Milam County officials go on to tout their “low land costs, lower cost of living for employees, utility availability, less urban congestion, room to expand, workforce availability, state and local business friendly environment, favorable weather conditions, and on and on.”

Milam County is calling its proposal “Project Blue Sky.”

“Blue Sky opens a window wide for Amazon to create its own vision for a work and life campus and community,” Barkemeyer said. “How could we not submit an application? It was an easy decision to pursue this great opportunity.”