So just what did

Central Florida offered company $400M, land

this region’s leaders pitch to Amazon recently in the hopes of bringing the company’s second headquarters here?

The Orlando region pitched Amazon on four potential sites for the mega-retailer’s next headquarters, offering up to $400 million of incentives, free land and possibilities — including a magnet high school and naming rights to a park under Interstate 4.

The Orlando Economic Partnership on Thursday released details of the region’s failed pitch. In recently winnowing down its initial list of 238 cities to just 20, Orlando dropped from Amazon’s preferred relocation sites. The group offered locations in:

Downtown Orlando’s Creative Village;

Tavistock’s Lake Nona and Sunbridge developments in southeast Orange County and parts of Osceola County;

NeoCity in northeast Osceola County;

The Tupperware campus on the proposed SunRail line near Kissimmee.

Cassandra Lafser, spokeswoman for Orlando, said it was a tailored proposal.

“The city handles economic development opportunities on a caseby-case basis looking at a lot of different factors like, the numbers of jobs they will create and capital investment they’ll bring to the region.” she said. “Proposals are typically done on a regional effort, like this one, and involve different partnerships, depending on what the unique needs of the companies are.”

The pitch for a 47-acre downtown location included a county offer to waive its portion of property taxes for a decade — about $133 million — in exchange for Amazon creating 1,000 high-paying jobs and investing capital. It also included an “ambassador” to help with governmental red tape so the project could open within 30 months. The city’s tax breaks totaled about $200 million. In addition, the state was kicking in up to $75 million in job credits.

Orlando also came with the offer of $25 million worth of “free or donated land.” The city offered to donate 17 acres mostly near the Creative Village project immediately west of downtown and the site of a downtown University of Central Florida campus slated to open in 2019. It also cited the availability of other property, including acreage on and near the land now leased by the Orlando Sentinel.

The partnership tried to check Amazon’s transportation box with Interstate 4 expansion, toll roads, SunRail, airports and bus routes. And it pushed affordable living with rents averaging $1.70 per square foot.

“Our strategy includes custom configuration of different areas of infill redevelopment opportunities in DTO [downtown Orlando] to absorb the energy and characteristics of our diverse downtown as you progress throughout … the campus,” the proposal states.

Tavistock’s influence on the pitch is apparent. Even the proposal for downtown mentioned the developer’s Lake Nona and Sunbridge projects being just 20-28 miles from the urban core. It also cited similar proximity to NeoCity, the technology-based community developing in Osceola County.

For Lake Nona and Sunbridge, Tavistock offered 100 acres of land

Orlando economic leaders have said the area region still struggles to put together a cohesive pitch that clearly defines its strengths.

and kicked in 25 percent rebates of real estate commissions to “Amazonians.” It also offered to build the headquarters, 1,000 houses and 1,000 apartments at negotiated rates. Home buyers could get a 10 percent break on options they selected. Osceola County offered to build a new magnet high school catering to Amazon’s needs. Incentives from Orange County and Orlando were similar to those for downtown Orlando. Osceola County offered $200 million of tax breaks and as much as $2 million in relocation expenses for high-paid employees moving to that county.

Osceola’s NeoCity proposal included free land owned by the county — 100 acres of developable property — and up to $200 million in tax discounts over a decade.

The county marketed its elected officials, too: “The Osceola County government has proven itself to be a visionary leadership team and accommodating development partner.”

The pitches weren’t enough to compete. Economic leaders in Orlando have 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.

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. Of the 20 finalists, only Los Angeles lies west of Denver, which also made the list. The other finalists: Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Indianapolis; Montgomery County, Md.; Nashville, Tenn.; Newark, N.J.; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, N.C.; Toronto, Ohio.

Officials with Amazon, which at $621.8 billion represents the world’s fourth-largest company by value, said they expect to make a decision this year.