STATE AIMS FOR HEAD START ON AMAZON PROPOSAL

Cities, developments will submit their sites by Friday; company’s deadline is Oct. 19

The Colorado Office of Economic Development is moving quickly to assemble a consolidated bid on Amazon’s request for a new campus and expects to have a proposal completed by Oct. 6 that will go to Gov. John Hickenlooper the following week for review ahead of Amazon’s Oct. 19 deadline.

“Our response will be five or six pages with lots of appendices,” Stephanie Copeland, the state’s economic development director, told the Colorado Economic Development Commission on Thursday.

Working through the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., the state has asked cities and developers to submit proposed sites for a new campus that fits Amazon’s requirements by Friday. Those requirements include access to transit, being within a 45-minute drive or ride of an international airport and within 30 minutes of a major population center. Any location must also be able to accommodate 8 million square feet of office and commercial space.

“We will review all sites submitted and determine which site or sites will provide the most tangible benefits and opportunity,” said Sam Bailey, vice president of economic development with the MDEDC. Those culling the proposals will use what they know of the preferences Amazon has shown in picking locations in the past.

Copeland told the commission the state will submit one preferred site for the campus, while also listing six or seven additional locations meeting Amazon’s requirements in the appendices. Bailey hedged, suggesting a few more locations could be offered up depending on the quality of the proposed locations that come in by Friday.

“If we provide them with 20 sites, we would be diluting our competitiveness,” Bailey said. “We want to make sure as a region and a state we put forward the best opportunities.”

Neither Bailey or Copeland discussed which locations are in the running.

Some areas that local developers have mentioned as possibilities are the River North section of Denver, the Denver International Airport region in Denver and Aurora, the former Gates rubber plant in central Denver and the U.S. 36 corridor including the former StorageTek campus in Louisville.

Seattle-based Amazon is looking to invest $5 billion initially in a second headquarters that could employ up to 50,000 people in jobs paying an average annual wage of $100,000 or more a year.

Copeland acknowledged that providing Amazon with a narrow list of proposed sites may leave some Front Range commu-

nities feeling excluded, such as those located too far from the airport.

The commission won’t be asked to review or approve the application, given that any incentives included at this point are nonbinding. Colorado has about $9.5 million available in its Strategic Fund for the recruitment of large employers like Amazon, and the state’s job growth incentive tax credit could provide tens of millions more a year to the company in state tax credits depending on how quickly it hires. The commission would have to sign off on any incentives if Amazon accepts Colorado’s proposal next year over the others it receives.

Colorado, given its inability to match the incentives that other states put on the table, will have to win any bid on other strengths including quality of life, educated workforce and its popularity with college graduates looking to start their careers.

Commissioner Tom Clark said DIA now has more international flights and metro Denver a more developed transit system than when the region pursued other large corporations like Boeing Corp. and lost. He also noted the region’s cooperative approach to economic development has helped it make the final three about 65 percent of the time it has gone after corporate relocations and expansions.