IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The company received 238 bids for its second headquarters, including three in the Inland Empire. The project will create up to 50,000 high-paying jobs, according to company officials.
Amazon must feel like the most popular kid in school.
When the e-commerce retail giant announced in September that it was accepting bids for a second headquarters, it set off an unprecedented bidding war in cities and counties across North America.
No less than 238 entities, including several in the Inland Empire, submitted proposals by the Oct. 19 deadline, and it’s not difficult to see why. Amazon’s second headquarters would have a major impact on any economy, even an established one.
The project will generate up to 50,000 jobs – many of them paying as much as $100,000 a year – and generate approximately $5 billion in construction and capital expenditures during the 10 to 15 years it will take to complete.
Proposals came from 54 states, provinces, districts and territories, including Puerto Rico, and three bids out of Mexico.
In the United States, only Arkansas, Montana, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont had no one submit a proposal, according to the New York Times.
Amazon spelled out few requirements for a bid to be considered, starting with 100 acres, enough to contain a campus of approximately eight million square feet.
It also wants to put its second headquarters in a city with a population of at least one million people, be close to an international airport and be in a “stable and business-friendly environment,” according to a statement released when the bid solicitations were announced.
Economic incentives will be a big part of any serious proposal.
“Incentives offered by the state/province and local communities to offset initial capital outlay and ongoing operational costs will be significant factors in the decision-making process,” the statement read.
That could work against any bid originating in California, because the state no longer has redevelopment, the traditional source for such incentives, starting with tax breaks.
Wherever it ends up, Amazon’s new headquarters will be equal to the company’s Seattle facility, which has about 50,000 workers, said Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer.
“Amazon HQ2 will bring millions of dollars in up front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs,” Bezos said in the statement. “We’re excited to find a second home.”
Amazon is expected to make its decision next year, according to a statement on its website.
Regardless of where it decides to locate, Amazon’s decision to build a second headquarters has generated nearly two months of free publicity for the company, which is already the overwhelming global leader in e-commerce.
At least three Inland Empire entities have submitted bids to Amazon: a partnership of Cal Poly Pomona, Fairplex and Los Angeles County; Riverside County and the city of Moreno Valley.
The Cal Poly Pomona-Fairplex-Los Angeles County partnership, known as Amazon Poly Plex, emphasizes both entities’ proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and to Ontario International Airport.
Also, both the college and Fairplex have enough land, individually, to accommodate a second Amazon campus. Both sites are close to the region’s universities, are near major freeways and are in areas with affordable housing.
Riverside County’s proposal is maybe the most ambitious of the three. It suggests seven possible sights for Amazon’s second headquarters: two in the March Joint Powers Authority territory, two in Moreno Valley and one each in Menifee, Murrieta and Riverside.
Moreno Valley also submitted a bid, and it came up with a clever way to get the attention of Amazon officials, at least for one morning.
On Oct. 19, the last day to submit a bid, the city sent an “HQ2 Strike Team” to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters to remind officials there what Moreno Valley has to offer.
The delegation then presented a “special edition” of The Washington Post, which declared that Moreno Valley had been awarded the second Amazon headquarters in an “epic battle of cities.”
Bezos is the owner and publisher of the Washington Post.
“Without a doubt, Amazon knows how serious the City of Moreno Valley is about winning their business,” said Tim Carroll, the city’s media manager, in a statement.
“As I stood there dressed in a newsboy costume and shouting ‘Extra, Extra Amazon chooses Moreno Valley for HQ2’ — I engaged Amazon employees as they arrived to the office for the start of their day. They were excited to hear more about what they saw in our newspaper.”
Does the Inland Empire have a chance of landing the mega-project? It’s a long shot, as it probably is for most places that submitted bids, but it does meet the general criteria Amazon is looking for, said John Husing, longtime Inland Empire economist.
It also has one thing a lot of areas lack, and that could be a factor when the e-commerce giant makes its decision.
“We have affordable upscale housing, and I emphasize upscale,” Husing said. “Amazon already has a strong presence here, so they’re familiar with the area, and that could help. But I think the upscale housing is the big thing. Not everyone has that.”
The Inland Empire’s labor pool could also work in its favor, but the region might struggle coming up with incentives that are competitive with other bidders, said Robert Kleinhenz, executive director of research at the UC Riverside School of Business’ Center for Economic Forecasting.
“There are places that will have more to offer than we do, not just in incentives but also in open land,” Kleinhenz said. “A lot of markets aren’t as built out as we are, and they don’t have to deal with the same restrictions we have. But this is going to be a tremendous opportunity for whoever gets it.”
