Orlando leaders stay positive despite rejection by Amazon
No longer on the list of candidates for Amazon’s second headquarters, Orlando area leaders say they need to refine how they pitch the region to corporate leaders looking for new locations.
The city was one of 238 to bid on the project, which is expected to bring $5 billion and up to 50,000 high-paying jobs to its eventual destination. Amazon released a list of 20 finalists Thursday, and Orlando didn’t make the cut.
Economic leaders in Orlando said the region continues to struggle to put together a cohesive pitch that clearly defines the region’s strengths, which include a deep tech talent pool and available land. That’s a problem they say likely contributed to failing to make the cut.
“It’s disappointing, but I think it speaks to the fact that we have more work to do to talk about what tremendous assets
Orlando has,” said Jim Thomas, CEO of Orlando Tech Association.
While losing out on Amazon is a blow, some say the exercise of putting together the package is one that could help attract future projects.
Chester Kennedy, CEO of the high-tech research facility BRIDG in Kissimmee, said the region should learn from the rejection.
“We have a long way to go to figure out how to get our message out there,” he said. “The proposal was a unifying action that got us thinking together better, but by the time we got organized, we still had a long way to go” to compete with other regions.
Local government leaders, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, said they looked forward to pursuing future major projects, highlighting the area’s collaboration and youth.
“We are a creative city that thinks big and are committed to continuing to pursue headquarter operations and nurture our homegrown technology and innovation companies,” Dyer said in a statement.
Amazon will still have a presence in the region, however. Last year Amazon began construction of a 2.4-million-square-foot distribution warehouse in Orange County south of Orlando International Airport. It says it will hire 1,500 workers for the facility when it opens later this year.
Miami is the only Florida city on the new headquarters list. Major metro areas — including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York and Atlanta dominated the finalists for the planned expansion of the Seattle-based internet retailing firm.
“Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said a statement from Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”
Officials with Amazon, which at $621.8 billion represents the world’s fourthlargest company by value, said they expect to make a decision this year.
Orlando’s pitch for the headquarters highlighted the area’s abundance of young workers, available land near Orlando International Airport and Lake Nona and in Osceola County and expansions by other national firms in the area.
Orlando lacks the kind of iconic higher-education institution that many cities on the short list have, said Owen Beitsch, an adjunct professor who teaches real estate development at University of Central Florida.
It also lacks the extensive mass-transit that other Amazon-selected cities have, he said.
“Where we do excel is having affordable housing and no income tax, we’re one of six states that have that,” said Beitsch, a senior director for the engineering consulting firm GAI Consultants in Orlando.
Of the 20 finalists, only Los Angeles lies west of Denver, which also made the list.
The other finalists: Austin; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Indianapolis; Montgomery County, Md.; Nashville; Newark; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, N.C.; Toronto.
“There will be other opportunities,” said Ed Schon, president of Florida High Tech Corridor Council. “I am proud of what we put together. We are very competitive but it’s just that, my goodness gracious, there were lots of people competing.”