Bradenton-Sarasota region fails to make Amazon list of HQ2 finalists

Amazon released the list of 20 metropolitan areas still in the running for its second headquarters on Thursday.

None of the three sites nominated in the Bradenton-Sarasota made the cut. Bids from Tampa Bay and Orlando also were shunned.

The closest sites were Miami and Atlanta.

Amazon reviewed 238 proposals from across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host HQ2, the Seattle-based company’s second headquarters in North America.

“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said Holly Sullivan, Amazon Public Policy. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

The three local sites nominated for HQ2:

• The CORE Campus at Lakewood Ranch. CORE, an acronym for Collaboration Opportunities for Research and Exploration,” is a 305-acre biotech business campus located north of State Road 70 along Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.
• Nine hundred acres along Moccasin Wallow Road near Interstate 75. The property is owned by homebuilder and developer Carlos Beruff.
• Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, the largest park of its kind in the Bradenton-Sarasota area.

The CORE campus and Beruff property are located in Manatee County. The Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park is located in Sarasota County.

Even though the local applications were widely viewed as extreme long shots, the potential benefits proved to be irresistible to economic development corporations in the Bradenton and Sarasota areas to ignore.

Amazon officials have said the HQ2 project will include the hiring of 50,000 new full-time employees and an investment of $5 billion in capital expenditures. Amazon says its Seattle headquarters injected $38 billion into the local economy over a six-year period.

“We knew it was a 1,000-to-1 long shot, but I thought we put together a very, very professional presentation. I was proud of our work product,” Beruff said.

Florida still has its foot in the door with Miami making Amazon’s list of 20, which is good for the state, he said.

“I am surprised because of Miami’s traffic congestion and cost of living. But there are a lot of very smart people in Seattle,” Beruff said.

Sharon Hillstrom, CEO of the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp., said it was not a wasted effort trying to attract Amazon.

“It was a great exercise for us to go through. We now have a great template in place when we go after another corporate headquarters. People expect us to be aggressive,” Hillstrom said.

Amazon evaluated each of the proposals based on the criteria outlined in the request for proposals to create the list of 20 HQ2 candidates that will continue in the selection process.

In the coming months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community. Amazon expects to make a decision in 2018.

Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon, not a satellite office.

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.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 10:48 AM with the headline "Bradenton-Sarasota region fails to make Amazon list of HQ2 finalists."