Amazon wants to know South Florida in detail
Bid for second headquarters intense, economic leaders say
With South Florida on the list of finalists for Amazon’s second headquarters, economic development leaders from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties have been working together to provide the e-commerce giant copious information on the region. At stake? Some 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
Since making the list of 20 finalists for Amazon’s second headquarters, South Florida’s economic development leaders have been busy tackling “intensive” data requests from the ecommerce giant.
At stake for South Florida: 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
During a panel discussion Thursday before commercial real estate executives in Fort Lauderdale, they remained tight-lipped about Amazon’s selection process but did reveal how Palm Beach, Broward and MiamiDade counties continue working together to provide the company information on the region and eight proposed South Florida sites.
“We’re providing an incredible level of detail that is pretty intensive,” said Mike Finney, president and CEO of Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s economic development group. “They say they want to make a decision by the end of this year.”
He declined to specifiy what data Amazon is seeking. However, in its “request for proposal,” Miami-Dade County
Amazon stated it is looking for 100 acres for a development of about 8 million square feet.
“It’s just an incredible undertaking,” said Finney, the newest economic development leader in South Florida, having joined the Miami-Dade group about eight months ago.
Appearing before the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks, known as NAIOP, Finney, along with Palm Beach County’s Kelly Smallridge and Broward’s Bob Swindell, spoke Thursday about their approach to winning corporate relocations — and a bit about Amazon HQ2.
The tricounty region joined forces to submit a bid in October. The economic development leaders said they came together for the bid because they knew they had to pitch regional benefits — abundant and bilingual talent, airports and other transportation, beaches, sports teams and public schools — to be a contender.
In terms of what Amazon is looking for, “the counties alone couldn’t click all of those boxes,” said Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance. Together, “we can say to Amazon: We can support this project.”
Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said because Amazon is looking to add 50,000 jobs, “it made the best sense to put in all the assets of the tricounty area.”
The three counties regularly compete with each other for corporate relocation projects from across the country; this is the first major effort where the agencies came together to make a single bid.
“The nature of our work at the end of the day is that we want