Could Amazon pick Philly for HQ2?
Could online giant pick Philly region for HQ2? Philadelphia-area economic development officials are identifying sites that could handle the mammoth project
Amazon, the online shopping behemoth, sent economic development officials across the nation scurrying last week when it announced it is looking for a location for a second headquarters.
The Seattle-based company explained it was bursting at the seams there and asked metropolitan areas across the nation if they’d like to be considered as its home for a second headquarters.
At stake: 50,000 potential jobs with annual salaries of $100,000, billions in economic development investment and the caché of being chosen by an elite high-tech stalwart that has done no less than change the way America shops.
Immediately, cities and regions across the nation began making their cases.
Chicago? Memphis? Hartford? Tulsa? St. Louis? Rhode Island? Brooklyn? Toronto? All – and many more – announced interest.
“This is a step-by-step process. Half the battle is getting them to visit so we can give them a tour. We want them to meet our people and outline the attributes we have here.”
– Select Greater Philadelphia Council Executive Director Matt Cabrey
Pennsylvania was no different. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both announced plans to make pitches to be Amazon’s second home.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the city would be a “prime” location. Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, said Pittsburgh is “uniquely positioned to submit a winning bid.”
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey released a letter he wrote to Amazon Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos pitching the state for the project.
“It has come to my at that Amazon has opened the search for a domestic location for its second company headquarters (HQ2),” Casey’s letter begins. “... Not only does Pennsylvania have incredible academic institutions and a worldrenowned workforce, it is home to key interstate commerce thoroughfares, critical supply chain infrastructure, a stable businessfriendly environment, and most importantly an existing relationship and significant Amazon presence. For these reasons, I believe one of the cities in Pennsylvania would be an ideal location for Amazon’s HQ2.”
Closer to home, Select Greater Philadelphia Council Executive Director Matt Cabrey is leading the region’s efforts to land Amazon. The company made
it known it is looking for bids from regions, not individual municipalities or developers.
In that vein, Cabrey has asked economic development officials from all of the counties in the region – in Philadelphia and its four Pennsylvania suburbs, southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware – to submit proposals to his organization “as soon as possible.” The organization will choose the ones it believes have the best chances and make its proposal to Amazon before the company’s Oct. 16 deadline.
“We want to make this pop,” Cabrey said. “This is a step-by-step process. Half
the battle is getting them to visit so we can give them a tour. We want them to meet our people and outline the attributes we have here.”
Those include the workforce – experienced executive suite material as well as young tech-savvy college graduates – a lower cost of living compared to other East Coast metropolises like New York and Washington, while at the same time offering easy access to those financial and government centers.
“This is a significant opportunity to really transform Greater Philadelphia,” Cabrey said.
In Chester County, the Economic Development
Council on Friday received a Request for Proposal, or RFP, from Select Greater Philadelphia.
Mike Grigalonis and MaryFrances McGarrity said they had just begun reviewing Amazon’s requirements, some of which provide a challenge to suburban locations like those in Chester County. It wants to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and be able to expand that headquarters to as much as 8 million square feet in the next decade.
That’s about the same size as its current home in Seattle, which has 33 buildings, 23 restaurants and houses 40,000 employees.
“That’s five times the size of Vanguard,” Grigalonis noted for comparison, adding that a completed Amazon project would increase the overall office product in Chester County by 50 percent. “It’s massive.”
The economic development officials believe Chester County surpasses other areas in terms of workforce training and skill level; has outdoor lifestyle opportunities like those in Seattle; has thriving boroughs that provide walkable lifestyles; and has top school districts and regional college opportunities.
“We think we have a lot to offer,” McGarrity said.
Cabrey wants to hear from the suburban counties on sites big enough to handle such a project but he said “our gut is telling us” Amazon is more interested in an urban setting.
Sites that have been mentioned in published reports are the Philadelphia Navy Yard and Schuylkill Yards in University City in Philadelphia, Camden, N.J., downtown Wilmington, Del., as well as some properties in Northern Delaware.
Cabrey acknowledged those were the first to come to his mind as he thought of Amazon’s request for bids.
One reason his group believes Amazon would prefer an urban setting? Millennials,
“I believe one of the cities in Pennsylvania would be an ideal location for Amazon’s HQ2.”
— U.S. Sen. Bob Casey
and their apparent preference for urban living after graduating from college. Due to the work of Campus Philly over the last 10 years, the city has become an attractive destination for the area’s graduates.
A Campus Philly survey released in June of more than 1,000 current college students in the region found 67 percent of respondents think they’ll stay in Philadelphia for at least some time after they graduate, up from 58 percent from a 2010 survey, BizPhilly reported.
“Millennials don’t want to own cars, they want to walk to work (or take public transportation),” Cabrey said. “At least that’s how we’re interpreting the RFP.”
Whatever the case, Cabrey is looking forward to seeing at each county’s best pitch.
“We want to get on the short list,” he said.