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NYC biz leaders make the case to Jeff Bezos for HQ2
Letter from top executives across several industries highlights workforce and transit
The Partnership for New York City is urging Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos to pick the Big Apple as the location of its new company headquarters.
A group of 70 business leaders in banking, finance, real estate, retail and media plans to send a letter to Amazon on Monday highlighting New York City’s talent pool and mass transit assets, Bloomberg News reported.
“New York Metro is the world’s largest and most diverse regional economy,” the letter reads. “It features unparalleled diversity of industry talent and institutional resources, all of which would enhance Amazon’s prodigious strengths and generate new opportunities to learn, grow, and partner.”
The corporate titans are hoping that the city’s diverse talent pool will help offset the expensive housing market, which stands to be a large impediment to landing Amazon’s HQ2.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant in September sent out a request for proposals for a second headquarters that is expected to cost $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs over the course of the next 15 to 17 years.
Industry City and Silverstein Properties’ World Trade Center are among the sites vying to land the tenant. The deadline for bids is Oct. 19.
Last month, Amazon inked a lease for 360,000 square feet at Brookfield Property Partners’ [TRDataCustom] 5 Manhattan West. It is also planning an 855,000-square-foot distribution center in Staten Island. [Bloomberg] – Rich Bockmann