Manatee County makes bid for Amazon’s second North American headquarters

The Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp. has submitted a proposal to locate Amazon’s second North American headquarters at one of two sites in Manatee County.

The proposed headquarters would be home to as many as 50,000 employees over a 20-year period, with Amazon planning to invest $5 billion in construction to create a “full equal” to its current Seattle campus.

Sharon Hillstrom, president and CEO of the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp., announced Manatee County’s proposal Tuesday afternoon.

One of the proposed sites is the 305-acre biotech business campus dubbed CORE at Lakewood Ranch, CORE stands for “Collaboration Opportunities for Research and Exploration.”

The other site is 900 acres along Moccasin Wallow Road near Interstate 75. The property is owned by homebuilder and developer Carlos Beruff.

“Amazon was looking for 100 acres. That site presents all kind of potential for expansion,” Hillstrom said.

Both sites meet all of Seattle-based Amazon’s criteria with the exception of one: the availability of mass transportation, Hillstrom said.

“We submitted our proposal on Monday. Amazon had a pretty aggressive timeframe,” she said.

The lack of mass transportation, and infrastructure that doesn’t meet Amazon’s criteria are significant.

Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston said Amazon is looking at major cities such as Atlanta and Boston, “and even for those cities that size, it will be somewhat difficult to provide workforce housing and traffic control. It would be great to have that sort of thing here, but they are probably looking for some things we don’t have, like housing and roadway infrastructure.”

Poston, a member of the EDC, said the proposal was news to him.

“Good luck is all I can say,” he said. “This is going to be a major investment to be made in this thing, and I think it’s way beyond the scope of what we can do.”

Amazon announced in early September that it was seeking a second North American headquarters, creating a scramble among cities nationwide for the new facility.

The proposed Manatee County locations for Amazon’s new headquarters would be virtually next door to Amazon’s 1,000,000-square-foot facility in Ruskin, which opened in September 2014.

Kirk G. Boylston, president of Lakewood Ranch Commercial, said the CORE project was submitted as a potential Amazon headquarters site because it has many of the attributes Amazon is seeking.

“They are the same factors that make the CORE project a viable site for other large life science and tech companies. Although we recognize it is a long shot to say the least, we and the Bradenton Area Economic Development council feel the project and the site are worthy of submittal,” Boylston said.

Amazon’s attractive offer

In its request for proposals, Amazon states:

“Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America. We expect to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs – it will be a full equal to our current campus in Seattle. In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.”

The deadline for applying to be the site of the new headquarters is Thursday. Amazon expects to make its final site selection in 2018.

Cities throughout the country started the submission frenzy on Monday, the first of four days Amazon is accepting bids. The Chicago area, Minneapolis, Baltimore, San Diego, Newark and the Nashville area are just a few of those reported to enter the fray. Some cities set up war rooms where employees watched videos of Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos to study his tastes and better tailor their proposals. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the state would offer $5 billion in tax breaks over a decade, reports state. Arizona business leaders sent a 21-foot saguaro cactus to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, which the company acknowledged on social media but declined to accept.

Already a big presence

In announcing plans for the Ruskin facility in October 2013, Amazon said it would offer more than 1,000 full-time jobs.

The Ruskin facility handles books, electronics and consumer goods. A companion facility built at the same time in Lakeland handles larger items, such as kayaks and televisions.

Other Florida regions expected to place bids for the second Amazon headquarters include Tampa-St. Petersburg, South Florida, Orlando and Jacksonville.

Hillstrom called the two Manatee County areas proposed for Amazon’s second headquarters excellent sites.

“We put together a pretty good proposal. It was an excellent exercise for our staff to go through. All in all, we saw this as a real positive activity to participate in,” she said. “This is an exciting time. I am glad that the EDC with our partners was able to put together a proposal. This affirms that we are the business destination of the South Tampa Bay region.”

Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant shares Hillstrom’s optimism.

“It’s hard to imagine it not being a good thing,” Bryant said. “You can’t say it would be totally 50,000 new people. I think there’s a lot of qualified employees locally, and I see this is a job creator.”

Bryant, too, said this was the first official word she has received that the EDC was making a legitimate attempt at courting Amazon. She is, of course, concerned about what a facility that size would do to local traffic, but said, “I think it is certainly needed for continued growth, and I think that’s necessary.”

Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy – every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city’s economy overall, according to its website.

The company has more than 380,000 employees worldwide.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Manatee County makes bid for Amazon’s second North American headquarters."