Amazon headquarters pitch extends beyond Milwaukee

Multiple sites to be proposed to online retail behemoth

Southeastern Wisconsin’s long-shot pitch to land Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters will extend beyond Milwaukee to the larger area.

Milwaukee 7, which promotes job retention and creation efforts in the Milwaukee area, plans to pitch multiple sites to Amazon, said Jim Paetsch, the nonprofit group’s vice president of corporate relocation, expansion and attraction.

For competitive reasons, Paetsch declined to provide details.

“I think there are some interesting assets here,” he said Wednesday. “And we plan to highlight those assets.”

Amazon in September announced its request for proposals for the project, called “HQ2.” The deadline for proposals is Oct. 19, with a decision expected in 2018.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said in September the city would make a pitch.

The fact that Foxconn Technology Group has since formally announced plans for a massive flat-screen manufacturing complex in Mount Pleasant, in Racine County, will help the M7 region in its broader pitch to Amazon, Paetsch said.

“To have more employers here, especially those interested in digital talent, helps build our entire infrastructure for everyone,” Paetsch said.

M7 covers Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Walworth and Kenosha counties.

Drawing Amazon’s attention will require the Milwaukee area to show it can produce tech employees, a former company executive told the Journal Sentinel in September.

The $5 billion second headquarters would employ up to 50,000 people, according to Seattle-based Amazon.

That raises immediate questions about whether the Milwaukee area would have enough qualified workers to fill those jobs at a time when Foxconn says it plans to employ as many as 13,000 people.

Amazon also listed access to an international airport, highways and mass transit as some of its site requirements.

Mitchell International Airport does offer flights to a few cities in Canada and Mexico, but doesn’t provide overseas flights.

And mass transit in southeastern Wisconsin is mainly limited to buses, along with Amtrak’s service between Milwaukee and Chicago and other limited passenger rail options.