Amazon, searching for a site for a second corporate headquarters somewhere in North America, said it was looking for “communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options.”
Enter the Upstate.
In its big for a headquarters than would employ 50,000 people, the Upstate sold itself as “the center of Charlanta,” one of the 12 economic meg-regions identified in a 2014 study by think tank Bos-Wash.
The study identified “Charlanta” as home to 22 million people and including 45 metro areas, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Birmingham. Two of the metro areas are in the Upstate, benefitting from their position on Interstate 85 between Charlotte and Atlanta.
“On paper, our region can sometimes be overlooked because it contains two Metropolitan Statistical Areas: the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin MSA, home to 824,112, and the Spartanburg MSA, home to 313,268. But by having a community that is so supportive of economic development and willing to pull together, our team has the resources to be proactive and present the Upstate as an exceptional location to live, work, and play,” said Jacob Hickman, director of business recruitment with the Upstate SC Alliance.
Sites throughout the 10-county Upstate region are proposed for real estate consideration, Hickman said.
Seattle-based Amazon said in a Request for Proposal issued on Sept. 7 that it was considering a “second corporate headquarters” somewhere in North America and was encouraging metro areas to submit proposals for hosting the facility. The company said it plans to hire up to 50,000 full-time employees at the facility over the next 10 to 15 years with an “average annual total compensation” of more than $100,000. The company said it could spend more than $5 billion on the facility over time.
Responses were due Oct 19 and Amazon said it expects to announce the winning community sometime next year.
In its announcement, Amazon said an “important consideration” in the decision is travel time to an international airport with daily direct flights to Seattle, New York, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Washington, D.C. It also said a “highly educated labor pool is critical and a strong university system is required.” Incentives offered by state and local governments will also be significant factors, the company said.
The second headquarters would employ managing executives and software development engineers, as well as legal, accounting, and administrative workers. The headquarters site would need more than 500,000 square feet of building space initially and up to eight million square feet over time, the company said.
Another city in the Palmetto state, Charleston, was not among the 238 cities submitting proposals because of concerns about the negative affects of growth, the Post and Courier reported.
