The Portland area on Thursday joined more than 150 North American cities in submitting their pitch to Amazon for its second headquarters.
Regional economic development group Greater Portland Inc. crafted the proposal, which offered Amazon development sites in four locations. Portland, Clark County, Beaverton and Milwaukie each found a chunk of land it would set aside for Amazon.
In addition, the pitch presented a “distributed campus concept,” with sites in all four locations.
“We submitted one very fat document,” said Greater Portland spokesman Adam Newman.
He declined to give any details about the specific locations, leaving that to the individual jurisdictions.
In a statement, Greater Portland said it was proud of its proposal.
“The submitted sites showcase that this region is willing, ready and able to partner with a developer, or employer, of Amazon’s scale.”
Regardless, the City of Roses appears to be a long shot due to its proximity to Amazon’s home base in Seattle and its small size, which limits its ability to offer large tax incentives and reduces its pool of talented tech workers.
In early September, the e-commerce giant announced it had outgrown its Seattle space and needed a second company headquarters, where it plans to employ as many as 50,000. The retailer said it plans to invest $5 billion in construction alone for the new site, which it’s calling Amazon HQ2.
Amazon has no shortage of suitors, with cities — at times in painfully pun-laden language — attempting to woo the company with tax incentives, shovel-ready development sites and, in one case, a brand-new bullet train. Toronto’s proposal included a signed letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extolling Canada’s virtues.
Possible sites
• PORTLAND
Though it’s not clear which suburban Portland sites are being offered to Amazon, the Portland Tribune reported that the city is pitching the former U.S. Post Office site in the Pearl District.
Portland’s urban renewal agency bought the 13.4-acre site at the base of the Broadway Bridge for $88 million last year.
During an Oct. 4 Portland City Council meeting, councilors approved increased height and density standards for the property.
At the meeting, Mayor Ted Wheeler said the property would soon be home to 700 units of affordable housing.
Previously, city officials said the site could accommodate 3.8 million square feet for housing and commercial space. That might not be enough for Amazon, which said it might need as much as 8 million square feet. It’s unclear what would become of the plans for affordable housing.
• MILWAUKIE
Milwaukie has set aside 100 acres of industrial land near its border with Portland. Its proposal to Amazon sited the campus in its North Milwaukie Innovation District, formerly its North Milwaukie Industrial Area.
In the city’s proposal, Amazon’s portion of the land would straddle both Johnson Creek and Highway 99. It would be bordered by the Southeast Tacoma Street MAX station on the north, Southeast 17th Avenue on the west, Milport and Mailwell roads on the south and the railroad tracks on the east.
The area is home to various businesses, including Pendleton Woolen Mills, Darigold and Goodwill. The state owns about 15 acres of the district, with the rest in private hands.
Milwaukie Community Development Director Alma Flores said the city owns none of it. In its request for proposals, Amazon did not require the site to be shovel-ready.
“There’s not an assumption that cities or counties or sites own the sites that they’re offering up,” she said. “Usually with these larger scale deals, you don’t just assume that 100 acres are readily available.”
If Amazon were to choose Milwaukie, the private landowners would need to sell for the campus to become a reality.
In addition to its standalone offering, Milwaukie also contributed about 32 acres for the multi-site campus proposal. In this proposal, Amazon’s hub would operate either in Portland, Clark County or Beaverton, with housing in Milwaukie, along the Springwater Corridor and next to the new MAX station.
Flores said her team got their supervisor’s permission to drop everything else for five weeks while they worked on the Amazon proposal. But if Amazon doesn’t choose Milwaukie, the work isn’t wasted, she said.
“We’ll absolutely put it to use,” she said.
The city will continue to market it as high-employment, flexible industrial space. With new zoning that allows for buildings as high as 75 feet, the area could accommodate warehouse and distribution centers in taller buildings, Flores explained.
• CLARK COUNTY
In Clark County, possible sites include the 174-acre former Hewlett-Packard campus in east Vancouver and a former mill site on Vancouver’s downtown waterfront, now under development. Chad Eiken, director of Vancouver’s Community Economic Development, declined to comment.
• BEAVERTON
Beaverton city officials have not yet responded for requests for comment.
Portland’s chances
In its request for proposals, Amazon outlined its wishlist: It wants to site its HQ2 in a metro area with more than 1 million people in an area that can attract and retain tech workers. It also needs to have “a stable and business-friendly environment.”
In two different analyses ranking possible HQ2 locations in the U.S. — one by The New York Times and one by Moody’s Analytics — Portland ranked high for its job growth, skilled labor, quality of life and ease of transportation.
Greater Portland said its proposal touted the area’s highly educated workforce and its variety of transportation options.
But the fact remains that Portland’s proximity to Seattle may be a deal-breaker.
Though Greater Portland employees insist the mere 175 miles between the two cities is an asset, many industry experts believe Amazon will seek a site far from the Pacific Northwest. Austin, Boston, Denver, Pittsburgh and Toronto have made a number of lists of likely candidates.
What’s next
Amazon plans to make its decision next year, but has not released further details of the selection process.
Greater Portland vowed to keep the lines of communication with Amazon open. While its statement acknowledged the difficult decision ahead of the e-commerce giant, Portland has a lot going for it.
“GPI is confident that the regional value proposition of talent + quality of life + connectivity + business ecosystem is compelling, and this combination of regional strengths is largely unmatched by any other U.S. metro,” it said.
