Friday is the internal deadline for North Texas cities to submit individual bids for Amazon’s massive HQ2 project to the chambers of commerce in Dallas and Fort Worth.
The Dallas Regional Chamber and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce will then bundle those pitches into a combined, regional pitch to the online retail giant before the Oct. 19t deadline the company set.
HQ2 will be a second headquarters for the Seattle-based company. It is expected to create more than 50,000 jobs and represent a direct $5 billion dollar investment into the local economy.
“Fifty thousand jobs is going to be a big deal for anyone and this is probably the biggest one we've had to date,” said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, who has been heavily involved in the process to date.
Sources indicate that 12 to 14 North Texas cities will make pitches to lure the HQ2 project. Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton, Plano, McKinney, Frisco and Grapevine are expected to be among them.
Brandom Gengelbach, Executive Vice President of Economic Development for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, noted that this entire process has been an exciting learning experience.
“Most of the time these types of projects are done very quietly with nondisclosure agreements and not a whole lot of people know,” Gengelbach said. “Not only is it a big project in size and scope, but the way it is being done is truly transformational.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
A recent local example about a giant corporation keeping its big moves a secret is Toyota, which relocated its North American Headquarters to Plano earlier this year.
“It was a very quiet process,” said Steve Stoler, Director of Media Relations for the City of Plano. “In fact, [I] wasn’t privy to who the relocating company was until it leaked out from Bloomberg News the night before the announcement. I was preparing a press release and news conference without knowing who was coming.”
“Toyota put a very high priority on informing their employees of the move to Plano first, before the public found out,” Stoler added.
In the case of HQ2, Amazon is taking a decidedly different approach.
“We want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit,” Amazon noted as an answer to the Frequently Asked Question on its HQ2 page, ‘Why is Amazon choosing its second headquarters location via a public process?’
