Initial contact reveals interest in urban and suburban sites
Amazon made verbal contact with Denver officials within 24 hours after picking the city as a finalist for its second headquarters. More calls and emails have since ensued, said Sam Bailey, the state’s point of contact during Amazon’s HQ2 hunt.
“Our approach, the places we’ve invested in, the talent we have here, the global accessibility — those pillars resonated well with the company,” Bailey shared Thursday. “We’re not offering anything outrageous. We’re really educating them with what we’ve invested in with the community.”
Denver is one of 20 North American cities where Amazon is considering building a second home, one that could employ up to 50,000 people earning an average salary of $100,000 a year. The state, through the private Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., pitched eight potential sites and tax credits and other financial incentives that could amount to at least $100 million. The state, however, would not share the locations nor incentive amounts.
From here on out, the city is clamming up, per Amazon’s request, said Bailey, vice president of economic development for Metro Denver EDC.
“As we predicted, this is becoming a more standard economic development process,” Bailey said. “The company initiated a public (request for proposals). But now that we’ve been shortlisted, it’s not unusual for it to become confidential at this stage.”
Bailey, however, did share that Amazon won’t say how long it expects the process to take, nor whether there will be another shortlist of candidates. Amazon has publicly said it will announce the winner in 2018.
“I can’t comment on (Amazon) site visits, although I will say that when Amazon identified Denver as a finalist, it truly does mean the metro Denver area and the eight urban and suburban locations” are in the running, Bailey said.
Other finalists, including Chicago, Boston and Newark, N.J., have also begun talks with Amazon, according to media reports. New Jersey publication ROI-NJ reported that Amazon plans a second request for proposals but won’t make it public.