Second Lakewood Ranch location nominated for Amazon headquarters

Sarasota has jumped into the Amazon HQ2 frenzy with a last minute-proposal.

The Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota submitted a recommendation on Thursday — Amazon’s deadline for accepting proposals — to place the online giant’s second North American headquarters at the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park.

Amazon set off a scramble among communities around the United States when it announced a three-day window, Oct. 16-19, for submitting proposals for the new headquarters.

The potential payoff, even for longshots, was too lucrative to ignore: the hiring of 50,000 new full-time employees, and $5 billion in capital expenditures. Amazon claims that its Seattle headquarters infused another $38 billion into the local economy over a six-year period.

Amazon has said HQ2 would be the full equal of its headquarters in Seattle, where it has 8 million square feet of office space.

The Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, the largest park of its kind in the Bradenton-Sarasota area, by contrast has 1.9 million square feet of office and commercial space. All of Lakewood Ranch has 4.7-million square-feet of office and commercial space.

Kirk G. Boylston, president of Lakewood Ranch Commercial, said he has no preference where Amazon would locate HQ2 if it comes to Lakewood Ranch.

Sharon Hillstrom, president and CEO of the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp., announced earlier this week that two Manatee County locations had been proposed to Amazon for HQ2: the CORE Campus at Lakewood Ranch, and 900-acres of Parrish property owned by Carlos Beruff near the intersection of Interstate 75 and Buckeye Road.

CORE is a 305-acre biotech business campus located north of State Road 70 along Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. The acronym stands for “Collaboration Opportunities for Research and Exploration.”

“If Amazon HQ2 were to located in anywhere in the Tampa Bay region, it is a win for all of us,” Hillstrom said in an email Friday of the latest proposal.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Second Lakewood Ranch location nominated for Amazon headquarters."