Twin Cities Join Forces To Get New Amazon HQ In Minn.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minneapolis and St. Paul are pooling their resources to get Amazon to put its new headquarters and 50,000 jobs in Minnesota.
The effort is being coordinated by Greater MSP, an economic development group and the state.
Friday is the deadline for ideas to be submitted to the group from cities and counties in this region.
A Reality Check On Minnesota's Bid For Amazon's 2nd HQ
Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of 65 regions in North America that could be home to the new headquarters.
Amazon has asked each region to coordinate a submission.
Michael Langley, CEO and president of Minneapolis-St Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership, will work with the state to collect the proposal for sites in this region trying to lure Amazon's jobs to the state.
"Amazon is a company that wants to have multiple options, so we want to give them every viable option that we can in our region to show that we have choices, that we have a lot of great opportunities that will meet their needs," Langley said.
He says lots of his peers believe Minneapolis-St Paul is a very competitive location.
"They cite things like, 'You already have 18 Fortune 500 headquarters. You're a headquarters town, you know how headquarters work. You have all the services that headquarters need. Things like legal and professional and financial services,'" Langley said
Louie Jambois, a development consultant for Ramsey County, believes Rice Creek Commons -- which sits on the old Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site in Arden Hills -- is a blank campus on which Amazon can do their development.
"Amazon wanted a site of up to 100 acres. [The old plant] site is 427 acres," Jambois said. "This site's been cleaned up to residential standards, we have installed infrastructure that provides great access to the site. This site truly is shovel-ready and ready to go."
This process will also give exposure to what our region has to offer to other companies thinking of moving its workforce.
Greater MSP and the Department of Employment and Economic Development will help get the proposals perfect before they are submitted to Amazon on Oct. 19.
Amazon will then decide which sites to look at further.
