Bay cities’ joint bid for big Amazon development

Oakland, S.F. team with 3 others; San Jose on its own

Several Bay Area cities officially threw in their bids for Amazon’s second headquarters Thursday, joining dozens of other metropolitan areas around North America hoping to score the massive development.

The online retailer, currently based in Seattle, started a nationwide search last month for a city to plant its second headquarters, which could be as big as 8 million square feet, cost as much as $5 billion to develop and employ up to 50,000 people making an average salary of $100,000 a year. Thursday was the deadline for bids.

A coalition of Bay Area cities — Concord, Fremont, Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco — submitted a joint bid, offering numerous sites around the Bay Area where the Seattle company could build another home. Among those sites: the former Concord Naval Weapons Station, Coliseum City in Oakland, San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard and the Warm Springs Innovation District in Fremont.

All of those sites meet the technical require-

ments outlined by Amazon, which include a city that has an international airport within 45 minutes’ drive, access to mass transit and a nearby “population center.” Amazon also said it will give preference to cities that can attract and retain technical talent, and that have a “stable and business-friendly environment.”

“We were focused on the competitive advantage that the Bay Area offers,” said Rufus Jeffris, a spokesman for the Bay Area Council, which is representing the coalition of cities in the bid.

Other cities around the country are getting creative. New York City officials lit iconic buildings, such as the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center in “Amazon orange” Wednesday night. Others have attempted to send gifts to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and posted pitch videos on YouTube.

Jeffris said such a development would impact the entire Bay Area, so it’s best for cities to work together. Amazon also said it preferred to get one bid per region.

But San Jose — which is in a different metropolitan census area than the coalition of Bay Area cities — submitted a separate bid.

“We felt we had a strong enough package as a city to stand on our own,” said Elisabeth Handler, a public information officer for San Jose’s Office of Economic Development.