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Bay Area Cities Team Up in Bid for Amazon HQ

A coalition of Bay Area cities is competing to host the second headquarters of Amazon.com — but time is running out.

As cities around the country send gifts to Jeff Bezos and make pitches on YouTube to win Amazon.com's second headquarters, several Bay Area cities are putting together a joint bid for the project.

The reason for banding together? The development could include 8 million square feet of office space, cost as much as $5 billion to develop, and employ up to 50,000 people making an average salary of $100,000 a year. Something of that size will profoundly affect the entire region, so it's better just to work together, officials say.

"Given the geography, the different possible sites in the region, and the requirements in the request for proposal, it makes sense for a partnership of this type rather than trying to compete individually," said Rufus Jeffris, a spokesman for the Bay Area Council, which is representing the coalition of cities.

Amazon started a nationwide search this month for a spot to plant its second headquarters, setting off a scramble among cities. So far, the cities included in the Bay Area bid are Concord, San Francisco, Fremont, Richmond and Oakland — a list that could grow in the coming days, Jeffris said.

San Jose, which is in a different census area, still plans to submit a separate proposal. The company will accept project proposals until Oct. 19, which gives the coalition of cities little time to finalize its pitch. A similar effort in the Washington, D.C., area to submit a regional pitch fell apart as the district and surrounding counties went their own ways, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

Unlike the race to lure car manufacturers to the South in the '90s, this competition has more to do with quality of life than tax breaks. Among Amazon's criteria are good universities and public transit, and it's looking for an urban campus rather than empty land by a highway interchange.

The technical specifications for the proposal include a city that has an international airport within 45 minutes' drive, has access to mass transit, and is near a "population center." Amazon said it will give preference to cities that can attract and retain technical talent, and that have a "stable and business-friendly environment."

"This is a region with top universities, talent and innovation culture that embraces the kind of company and business that Amazon represents," Jeffris said. "We think it is a desirable place to live, despite some of the challenges we have."
However, others worry how the region would handle such an influx of jobs in an area with low unemployment, rapidly expanding companies like Apple, Facebook and Google, and little housing being built for newcomers. Given that, some are skeptical that Amazon will choose a site in Northern California.

Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of SPUR, an urban planning think tank, said it is not very likely Amazon will come to the Bay Area — but the region should nevertheless try to win its business.

"I think the Bay Area is putting together a really thoughtful, high-road bid," he said. "It's emphasizing transit and urbanism and the skilled workforce, rather than trying to lure Amazon with a lot of tax breaks."

But, if the area doesn't get it, he said, it's not the end of the world: "The Bay Area is not desperate for jobs."

(c)2017 the San Francisco Chronicle

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