City Council Vice President Aaron Bowman told the Southside Business Men’s Club on Wednesday that cities vying for Amazon.com’s second headquarters might learn more by the end of March.
He said later that was his guess, but the timing was that Amazon announced in September it would take proposals for the project and March is the six-month mark.
“We expect sometime before the end of the first quarter, maybe, that Amazon will come out and say, ‘OK, we’ve done all our research and we’ve narrowed it down to X number of cities.’ We don’t know how many those will be,” Bowman told the business group, which focuses on the economic and civic climate of South Jacksonville.
Seattle-based Amazon received 238 submissions for its Oct. 19 deadline from cities interested in competing for what it calls HQ2.
The e-commerce retailer said that second corporate base would create 50,000 jobs making an average of $100,000, occupy 8 million square feet of office space and invest $5 billion over 15-17 years. It needs 100 acres, but would start smaller with 500,000 square feet of office space.
“We’re working on that one,” said Bowman, who also is senior vice president of business development for JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development division of JAX Chamber.
In 2017, Amazon opened two fulfillment centers, a sortation center and a delivery station in North and West Jacksonville. They employ more than 3,000 people and are projected to reach 5,000 jobs this year.
Because of that and the company’s familiarity with Jacksonville, Bowman said Amazon asked the city to submit a proposal. The city submitted a proposal through Enterprise Florida, the state public-private agency that recruits economic development.
The Miami Herald reported Enterprise Florida submitted four proposals — from the Miami area, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville — as a package. Media reports said other counties also made proposals.
The city and Enterprise Florida decline to say the level of taxpayer incentives it offered Amazon for the project, citing economic development confidentiality laws. Amazon says it doesn’t prevent cities or states from reporting their offers but does require them to keep the company’s information private.
Amazon said it was up to the competing cities to go public with their individual bids and that cities are free to decide the level of public disclosure about their proposals.
Few cities released such details.
On Dec. 14, JAXUSA released the video created to accompany its offer to Amazon. It showed that Jacksonville is offering the riverfront Shipyards site Downtown at no cost.
Jacksonville’s 3-minute 36-second video promoted 200 acres along the Northbank riverfront for a live-work-play environment for Amazon. It touted property between the established office district and the Daily’s Place amphitheater and EverBank Field for the campus, including some parking lots and empty spaces in the Sports Complex.
City and chamber officials declined further details. The video can be viewed at jaxdailyrecord.com.
Bowman said the North Jacksonville fulfillment center near Jacksonville International Airport uses robotics to pick products off the shelves. That center fills Amazon orders for small consumer items.
“The robots will pick up the product off the shelf and deliver it to somebody. They check the inventory, they pack it and they ship it out. And those boxes go to a sorting center,” he said.
The Westside Cecil Commerce Center fulfillment facility handles big products, he said, such as chairs, kayaks and televisions. He said that center experimented with robotics but depends on “guys and gals going to the shelves, picking up the products and shipping them out.”
A sortation center operates in Westside Industrial Park and a delivery station operates at Alta Lakes Commerce Center in North Jacksonville.
“It’s been a great relationship with them,” Bowman said.
“Their experience here in Jacksonville was so positive that they asked us to participate” in submitting a proposal for HQ2.
“I’m sure they did that to multiple cities, but it’s kind of nice when they come knocking on your door, going ‘We expect to see your application on that.’”
Amazon declined comment Friday.
After his presentation, Bowman said during an interview that the first quarter was a guess about when he might expect news about Amazon’s first decisions.
Amazon said it will choose the site for HQ2 this year.
One report hinted at a big Amazon decision.
The Boston Globe reported last week that Amazon was in talks to lease 500,000 square feet of office space in Boston with an option to double the amount. It said the search started before Amazon publicly disclosed its HQ2 search.
Amazon employs more than 1,000 people in Boston and Cambridge, primarily software engineers and developers, the Globe reported.
Amazon said it would start its first phase of HQ2 with 500,000 square feet in 2019. Boston bid for the project.
Proposals came from cities and counties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Media reports speculate the leading contenders include Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; and Toronto.
The Forbes.com news site reported Thursday that it asked the Forbes Agency Council which locations in the U.S. made the most sense for HQ2.
The headline was “14 Thriving Cities Amazon Should Consider for HQ2” and the list did not include Jacksonville. In order, the list comprised Detroit; Atlanta; Boston; Austin; Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Herndon, Virginia; Newark; Salt Lake City; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the greater Los Angeles area; Phoenix; and Orlando.
“I think it’s going to be extremely competitive,” Bowman said.
Asked about Jacksonville’s chances, he replied: “We are as competitive as anyone else.”
