The hunt is on.
Pittsburgh formally entered the race for Amazon’s second headquarters Wednesday, filing its proposal — some 2 inches thick — well ahead of the midnight Thursday deadline set by the Seattle e-commerce giant.
In doing so, the region joins a frenzied competition expected to involve more than 100 cities, including cross-state rival Philadelphia, for a shot at the 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment the online retailer is promising for its HQ2.
Not wanting to tip off the competition or violate non-disclosure agreements, details of the city’s bid were scant. But Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto, said he believes the region is “uniquely poised” to win the highly coveted economic development prize.
“I think the overall theme here is that this proposal that we submitted was one that we worked very hard to make sure was competitive for Amazon but also had to be good for Pittsburgh,” he said.
Good morning @Amazon - We are Pittsburgh.https://t.co/ZqkyoOP7Zk
— bill peduto (@billpeduto) October 19, 2017
The proposal, Mr. Acklin said, showcases many of the region’s attributes, including a world-class talent pool, low cost of living, high quality of life, a collaborative business environment, forward-thinking leadership and significant capacity to grow.
The latter, he maintained, could separate Pittsburgh from many other contenders for the second headquarters operation, which could involve 1 million square feet of space in the first phase and up to 8 million overall.
“We’ve been working on this for several decades,” Mr. Acklin said. “We’ve prepared ourselves for this type of investment. Other cities that may have overheated markets aren’t able to accommodate or receive this type of substantial economic investment.”
Local universities, including Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Robert Morris and others, were central to the bid, potentially providing the talent pool to fuel the job growth Amazon anticipates in its HQ2 city.
Mr. Acklin would not divulge the sites included in the proposal. The PGHQ2 group formed to advance the region’s bid has negotiated letters of intent with a “number of key potential sites that we think are perfect potential opportunities” for Amazon, he said.
The proposal contains main sites as well as secondary ones that could accommodate Amazon as it expands. The agreements lock down the sites for “reasonable period of time” to give the company time to evaluate them. All were amicably negotiated, Mr. Acklin said.
Likely locations include the newly renamed 178-acre Hazelwood Green property, the 28-acre former Civic Arena site and the 195-acre World Trade Center land at Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald also mentioned the former Carrie Furnace site, old Westinghouse properties in Churchill and Monroeville and real estate in Cranberry and other parts of the region as potential candidates.
“We’re not limiting our choices or saying to Amazon we want you to go here,” he noted.
Willing to offer $1 billion?
The bidding for Amazon is expected to produce incentives from individual bidders in excess of $1 billion. Neither Mr. Acklin nor Mr. Fitzgerald would discuss specific details regarding the incentives in the Pittsburgh bid.
Both believe the state has put together what Mr. Fitzgerald called a “very competitive package.”
“I think we’re going to be just fine with the incentive package they’re putting together,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “They’re based on deliverable performance and economic growth that can be verified.”
J.J. Abbott, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf, said no details on any incentive offers would be available before the deadline.
Former Gov. Tom Corbett provided $1.6 billion in incentives to Shell to build its $6 billion ethane cracker plant in Beaver County.
The state also offered Amazon with $22.25 million worth of incentives last year, contingent on the internet retailer investing at least $150 million and creating at least 5,000 full-time jobs over three years, mainly involving warehouses.
Some local incentives also could be involved.
Mr. Acklin said the proposal takes into account the impact that Amazon’s growth could have on the region. In Seattle, housing and rental prices have skyrocketed and infrastructure has been strained, in part because of Amazon’s expansion from 5,200 employees in 2010 to 40,000 today.
Pittsburgh’s bid, he said, includes strategies to address investments in education, infrastructure and housing affordability — the theme being that “if the future is not for all, it is not for us.”
The city already is taking steps to address housing affordability, Mr. Acklin said, and has adopted “P4 Performance Measures,” to base development decisions on “people, planet, place and performance.”
“We’re able to address some of the potential downsides of that type of significant investment, unlike other cities who already have lost the ability to channel market forces in a more equitable manner,” he said.
Beyond the nuts and bolts, the region’s bid includes a video and dozens of letters of support. The city of Erie also has thrown its support behind Pittsburgh’s bid. A new HQPittsburgh.com website debuting Thursday will encourage people to share why “the Burgh is yours” and post photos, videos, and comments.
The final proposal, Mr. Acklin said, was a collaboration involving more than 400 stakeholders in government, business, university, nonprofit and community sectors.
It has resulted in the formation of a new entity — PGHQ2, a subsidiary of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development — that will work with Amazon in an effort to land the second headquarters. That entity also will remain in place to try to bring other businesses to Pittsburgh.
The next steps
While Thursday is the deadline for joining the fray in the quest for HQ2, it may not be the end of the hunt. There could be additional phases, depending on the number of proposals.
Amazon, which made the announcement Sept. 7 that it would seek a second headquarters, may send delegations to cities it is interested in pursuing. Among its requirements, it has stated a preference for metro areas with more than 1 million people.
Mr. Peduto and Mr. Fitzgerald scored a bit of a coup in getting a private conference call with an unidentified Amazon executive who will read the proposals to discuss the process and what should be included in the bid.
Some cities sent delegations to Seattle. Mr. Fitzgerald visited for a day last week. None of them got audiences with the online retailer, which has been careful to stay neutral.
Amazon officials have been available to answer questions from cities relating to their potential proposals. Those conversations have given Mr. Acklin hope.
“When they described the ideal type of opportunity, it was almost as if they have read our proposal,” he said.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: October 19, 2017, 10:45 a.m.
