Raleigh makes the cut for Amazon HQ2

by Joseph Pisani, Associated Press, published on WRAL.com, January 19, 2018.

Amazon has narrowed its hunt for a second headquarters to 20 locations, concentrated among cities in the U.S. East and Midwest. Raleigh was among the 20 finalists, as was Toronto, keeping the company's international options open.

The online retailer said Thursday that after sorting through 238 proposals, the potential locations still include other tech-strong places like Boston and New York. Other contenders include Chicago, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio, in the Midwest.

Los Angeles was the only West Coast city on the list. Both Texas and Pennsylvania had two cities that made the cut: Austin, Dallas, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In the South, Raleigh, Miami, Nashville and Atlanta are being considered.

State Secretary of Commerce Anthony M. Copeland pointed to the Triangle's business climate and "technically sophisticated workforce" as draws for Amazon.

"We are excited to learn of Amazon’s continuing interest in North Carolina and the Raleigh area as a location for their HQ2 project. I’m not surprised that Amazon recognizes the many benefits the Research Triangle region offers," he said.

Raleigh is by far the smallest metro area by population among the finalists, just behind Nashville, U.S. Census figures show.

Mark Williams, president of the Strategic Development Group, a South Carolina firm that frequently works on site location projects in the Southeast, said access to a large workforce will likely be a key deciding factor in the company's final decision.

"I don't know how much of this is site search and how much is public relations," Williams said.

Much about Raleigh's next steps is unclear, including whether Amazon is considering only the City of Oaks or the entire region. The Triangle submitted bids for seven sites for the company's consideration, but citing concerns about losing a competitive advantage, officials have so far refused to tell the public where they are.

Research Triangle Regional Partnership Executive Director Ryan Combs said there are proposed sites in Wake, Durham and Chatham counties.

The other contenders: Denver, Washington D.C., Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Newark, New Jersey; and Northern Virginia.

Amazon said it will make a final selection sometime this year.

The company's announcement last fall that it was looking for a second home launched a fierce competition among cities looking to lure Amazon and its promise of 50,000 new jobs and construction spending of more than $5 billion.

State and local governments played up the amenities they think make their locations the best choice for Amazon's second headquarters.

The company had stipulated that it was seeking 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.

But Amazon also made it very clear that it wanted tax breaks, grants and any other incentives.

Some state and local governments have made public the details of the financial incentives they are dangling. New Jersey's pitch contains $7 billion in tax breaks and Boston's offer includes $75 million for affordable housing for Amazon employees and others.

But many of the state and local governments competing for the headquarters have refused to disclose the tax breaks or other financial incentives they offered. More than 15 states and cities, including Chicago, turned down requests from The Associated Press to detail the promises they've made.

Several say they don't want their competitors to know what they're offering, a stance that open-government advocates criticized.

WRAL News submitted records requests for Amazon-related materials to 15 North Carolina agencies, county governments and municipalities earlier this year. Ten of the public agencies denied those requests outright. Only one agency – the City of Durham – released any information directly related to the internal bidding process.

Amazon plans to remain in its sprawling Seattle headquarters and the second home base will be "a full equal" to it, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had said.

The extra space will help the rapidly-growing company, which It had nearly 542,000 employees at the end of September, a 77 percent jump from the year before. Some of that growth came from Amazon's nearly $14 billion acquisition last year of natural foods grocer Whole Foods and its 89,000 employees.

http://www.wral.com/amazon-releases-finalist-cities-for-second-headquarters/17269737/