Koh will push Merrimack Valley proposal
Congressional candidate Dan Koh, who was previously chief of staff to Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said he’d push for Amazon to pick a home for its new headquarters in the district in which he’s running, but questioned whether the area has the infrastructure needed.
During an appearance yesterday on Boston Herald Radio, Koh said he’d “fight like hell” to bring Amazon’s new headquarters to the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill.
Koh said the Bay State should look to Silicon Valley, which has a strong tech center in San Francisco, but is home to other companies — including Apple and Google — that are more than an hour outside the city.
“I think there’s a huge opportunity to invest in our infrastructure with the help of the U.S. government, frankly, to create the kind of infrastructure that would allow an Amazon or other big companies to say, ‘You know what, I could set up a campus in Lawrence,’” Koh said.
Lawrence, Haverhill and North Andover will submit a bid for the new headquarters, which could be as large as 8 million square feet and have room for up to 50,000 employees. The proposal will be focused on the area’s proximity to Boston and far cheaper housing and land costs.
The proposal, which includes sites along existing commuter rail tracks, will go up against a pitch from Walsh, Koh’s former boss, who wants Suffolk Downs in Boston and Revere as a possible campus.
“I think we need to have a mentality change in the region ... To think about this whole region as an economic opportunity,” Koh said. “Thinking about a huge company coming to Boston — the city proper — or in Cambridge, or Andover and Lawrence or Lowell, that affects the entire region.”