Credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Tim D. Godbee/U.S. Navy
The waterfront in Bristol Township won’t be the second home of mega-retailer and technology company Amazon.
According to a statement released to media outlets Thursday morning, Amazon has narrowed down their lists of 238 applications to just 20 cities, mainly in the Midwest and East Coast. Philadelphia was among the cities listed by the company.
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Amazon announced last year that they were looking for a host municipality for their second headquarters, one outside of their home city of Seattle. The request for proposals noted the company was seeking enough land for what could end up being 8 million square feet of facilities, a metropolitan area of more than 1 million people, proximity to highways and an international airport, a community that “thinks big and creatively” and areas with the potential to attract and retain technical talent.
Communities around the United State, Canada and Mexico put together proposals to draw Amazon and their expected $5 billion investment and 50,000 jobs.
Bristol Township submitted a proposal in October. The bid focused on Dow Chemical’s 794-acre riverfront Maple Beach property. The diverse property offers plenty of land, infrastructure, access to highways and the Philadelphia airport and proximity to a skilled workforce, township officials said.
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The site, which is also known as Maple Beach, stretches along the Delaware River from Croydon to Bristol and has plenty of land set back from the Delaware River. The proposal notes that the site is close to highways, a short drive to the Philadelphia International Airport, close to numerous esteemed universities and within a short drive to 15 major health systems.
Credit: Bristol Township
“We drank the Kool-Aid and took a shot at it,” Township engineer Kurt Schroeder, who works for Gilmore and Associates, said at the October 2017 Council meeting.
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Nearby, Bensalem submitted a plan to lure Amazon to the 675-acres along the river that are open for development. The proposal featured many draws similar to Bristol Township’s submission and noted the facility would keystone the township’s Riverfront Revitalization District.
Here are a list of finalist cities:
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Boston
- Chicago
- Columbus
- Dallas
- Denver
- Indianapolis
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Montgomery County, Maryland
- Nashville
- Newark, New Jersey
- New York City
- Northern Virginia
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Raleigh
- Toronto
- Washington D.C.
“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”
Credit: Bristol Township
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Amazon staff looked at each proposal as they worked to find 20 candidate communities for their second headquarters.
“In the coming months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community. Amazon expects to make a decision in 2018,” the company statement said.
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While Bristol Township and Bensalem were longshots, the attention from the entries has been good for the communities, both of whom are working to attract new businesses.
Philadelphia’s proposal for the Amazon project has received national attention and was considered a likely finalist. The city’s proposal focused on the educated workforce, accessibility and affordability among its big-city peers.
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If Philadelphia wins their bid for Amazon’s second headquarter, there would likely be positive impacts to surrounding communities, like those in Lower Bucks County.
