Mayor Nenshi says Calgary has 'serious advantages' in bid to host new Amazon headquarters
New head office could mean $5B investment in Calgary and tens of thousands of jobs
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says Amazon, the popular online shopping powerhouse, needs look no further than Calgary for real estate to build its proposed newheadquarters.
Dubbed "HQ2" by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the new facility would act as a second base of operations for the e-commerce company. Amazon has put out a call for North American cities to bid on the project, a call Calgary Mayor NaheedNenshisays the city is ready to answer.
"I cannot imagine a better place than Calgary for this kind of investment, and I will be making that case strongly," Nenshi said, adding the city's highly-educated workforce and availability of affordable commerical real estate make Calgary a desirable candidate.
Nenshi said a non-disclosure agreement prohibits Calgary Economic Developmentfrom revealingdetails of the city's talks with Amazon.
But Nenshi did say that the city is "very familiar" with "this particular pitch."
Amazon says it will invest $5 billion USto develop the8,000,000-square-footheadquarters.
Over the course of a decade, Amazon says, HQ2 willeventually employ as manyas50,000 workerswith an average salaryof $100,000 US.
Amazon's current home is in Seattle.Since openingits new headquarters there in2016, Amazon saysthe company hasadded $38 billion US to the city's economy.
Contender criteria
Amazon released a list of criteria a city needsmeet before being considered for HQ2.
The company is looking for:
- ametropolitan areawith more than one million people.
- urban or suburban locations with "the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent."
- communities that "think big and creatively" with respect toreal estate.
Because of office building vacancies downtown, Nenshisays Calgary meets all of the above criteria andoffers Amazon both a suburban andurbanoptionfor the new hub.
"There are opportunities to build on bare ground, there are opportunities to move into existing buildings there are also suburban opportunities," Nenshi said.
"It would be very difficult to imagine any other city in North America able to compete the way we could."
Nenshi has made the case for Calgary as a home for U.S.-based businesses before.
Earlier this year, trade missions to Silicon Valley byCalgary Economic Development were successful in luring at least one California-based company to Calgary.
The announcement was made in April butNenshi was unable to provide details on the companybut said it's a big enough namethat there would be a ribbon-cutting when it opens.
The mayors ofVancouver,Toronto and Halifaxhave all made their desire for HQ2 to land in their city known. But Nenshi said dailydirect flights between Calgary and Amazon'shomebase in Seattle puts Calgary aboveotherHQ2 contenders.
"I expect a lot of people will be using that flight over the next several weeks," Nenshisaid.
'It's really up to the city to sell the city'
On the Calgary Eyeopeneron Friday, Calgary Economic Development's CEO Mary Moran expanded on the notion that Calgary is well-positioned to be highly competitive in the Amazon bid.
"We have a great labour pool," Moransaid.
"We have an increasing andgrowing graduation base coming out of computer science. We have the highest STEM concentration of grads in the country, not to mention we have economical office space, a great quality of life, we have great transit, we have a great airport, we're an hour away [from Amazon headquarters in Seattle] and our cost of living is so much less than it is in Seattle."
While other regions have lured Amazon through incentive deals, Moran said that tax incentives aren't a municipal issue, they're a provincial and federal responsibility.
"It's really up to the city to sell the city," shesaid. "And it's really up to the federal andprovincial governments to come in and support.
"They have to play neutral ground, but we haveto do our job and our job is competing against Canadian cities, too.
"Some of the evaluations are identifying Montreal, Torontoand Calgaryas the top threeCanadian cities that are likely to win this, and part of that is just talent availability.
"What we as a city have to do," she said, "is work with the province andthe federal governmentand say, we really want this, we need it and our job is to do the rock-solid pitch. Be creative. Be breakthrough."
With files from Scott Dippel
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