Touting the state’s ability to attract and grow tech talent, a number of California cities and regions have entered bids for Amazon’s second headquarters in North America.
Since the online retailer launched its bidding process in September, the company has received 238 proposals from cities and regions in North America. California entrants include Sacramento, San Jose, the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Diego city of Chula Vista. Amazon expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and provide up to 50,000 high-paying jobs to the winning city.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos requested creative ideas, and cities and economic groups across the country responded: Tucson, Ariz.-based Sun Corridor sent the retailer a 21-foot cactus and one Georgia city offered to create a city named Amazon.
While Chula Vista would keep its name (Spanish for “beautiful view”) as Amazon’s second home, the city of 267,000 people offered $300 million to offset property taxes and a 200-plus-acre, mixed-use hub called Millenia. Designed by Gensler, the proposed buildings would include 500,000 square feet of shovel-ready office space.
“We can provide 8-million square feet of space in a continuous greenfield development,” says Mayor Mary Casillas Salas. “And Amazon can embrace our unmatched quality of life in master-planned communities with housing for all income levels.”
The Bay Area Council, meanwhile, is offering more than 60 million square feet and 45,000 units of new housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, while San Jose sent a separate bid that touted its size and did not include taxpayer subsidies. The Greater Sacramento Economic Council offered 12 sites with the potential to construct 50 million square feet of office space.
