Pittston, PA -
Amazon is looking for a second location for their new headquarters site to add to its current downtown Seattle home base. The e-commerce leader just issued the Request for Proposal for Amazon HQ2 and the construction costs are in excess of $5 billion over a 15 - 17 year period.
Amazon HQ2 will be a second headquarters, however, it won't play second fiddle. “We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder & CEO, said in a prepared statement.
The project's initial phase will deliver a minimum of 500,000 square feet, with future phases resulting in a campus exceeding 8 million square feet. HQ2 will house up to 50,000 new employees with high-paying jobs, as well as many existing senior leaders and their respective teams who will be given the option to relocate from the company's corporate office in Seattle.
Penn's Northeast, a regional economic development agency, announced that it will vie for the project along with its partners across its five counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
John Augustine, the president and CEO of Penn's Northeast, said his group is already in the process of evaluating potential sites for the project in Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wayne, Monroe and Schuylkill counties.
Once a location is chosen, Augustine said they will look at different demographics, such as cost of living, tax base and the colleges and universities in the area and what relevant programs they have available to potentially put students in the workforce.
Even though the area doesn't meet every preference Amazon listed - for instance, a metropolitan area that's home to more than 1 million people - he believes the region's proximity to major metropolitan areas and its low cost of living make it an attractive option.
He said local officials have already offered support, such as U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, who wrote a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Augustine will actively seek support from municipal leaders as well.
“We want to put our best foot forward to show what Northeastern Pennsylvania has to offer!” expressed Augustine.
The deadline for RFP submission for Amazon HQ2 is October 19, 2017.
