Amazon announced the candidates for its second headquarters in North America, and Baltimore is not among them.
Mayor Catherine Pugh reacted to the decision saying, "Naturally, like all Baltimoreans, I am disappointed that our city was not selected as among the finalists for Amazon’s new headquarters. We presented a comprehensive proposal that we were confident was compelling and competitive."
"I want to express my deep gratitude to the many business and civic leaders who invested their expertise, dedication and time to advance Baltimore’s prospects. While we may never know why our proposal was not successful, we will continue to accelerate the actions underway to improve the prospects of all our citizens. "In no way will Amazon’s decision slow our pursuit of a strong growth agenda for Baltimore, as we work to attract new investment, quality job opportunities, and importantly, new residents to a city celebrated for its diversity, and its rich higher educational, athletic, cultural, medical, and maritime assets. Baltimore is a great city and we will not let up in all that we’re doing to realize our full potential."
During a press conference, she said that she is disappointed, but she is excited about future endeavors within the city. She added that she sees a lot of potential and growth coming, so officials will continue to try to grab any opportunity they can to bring companies and jobs here.
She also commented on Baltimore's crime rate and said she does not believe this is a factor as to why Amazon did not choose the Charm City. She said we may never know why they did not choose Baltimore, but if you look at the other cities on the list there are similarities with the crime rate.
The company reviewed 238 proposals from across the U.S., Canada and Mexico and Thursday announced the top 20 metropolitan areas moving on to the next phase of the project.
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Columbus, OH
- Dallas, TX
- Denver, CO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Montgomery County, MD
- Nashville, TN
- Newark, NJ
- New York City, NY
- Northern Virginia, VA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Raleigh, NC
- Toronto, ON
- Washington D.C.
Montgomery County, who did make the shortlist, released the following statement on Thursday,
“I am extremely pleased and proud that Amazon selected Montgomery County, Md. to enter into future discussions regarding locating their second headquarters. I want to thank Governor Hogan and his entire team for their strong support in helping to create a compelling case for the County. As the only County in the country on the short list, having the ability to move forward for further consideration is a real honor. I believe our initial proposal made an extremely strong case for Montgomery County as a great place do business, and I look forward to working with Amazon to bring jobs and investment to the County.”
Baltimore City leaders submitted a proposal for HQ2 back in October.
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At the time Bill Cole, the President of the Baltimore Development Corporation said, "You know, we've got all of these reasons and the part we think is most important is we're affordable. By all comparison to anyone else competing, we're very affordable. So you've got the accessibility, you've got the land, and you've got the affordability.”
The City never revealed what they offered the company as an incentive to choose Baltimore.
“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, 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.”
Amazon says it expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.
In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, the company says construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.
