Amazon Passes Over Philadelphia For Its Second Headquarters
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Amazon will not be choosing Philadelphia as the site for their next headquarters.
New York City and Arlington, Virginia will be the homes to Amazon's split-second headquarters, the company announced Tuesday.
Philadelphia was among a list of 20 finalists for potential locations for HQ2. The tech giant estimates the creation of some 50,000 jobs.
The city pitched two sites in October – the Philadelphia Navy Yard and University City.
Mayor Jim Kenney and the city's commerce director Harold Epps say the proposal itself has left a positive impact.
"The benefit that we have gotten from that proposal has been enormous. As a result of it we have had other companies choose Philadelphia," said Epps.
It's a vision the city's chamber of commerce chairman didn't see coming.
"Yes we didn't win, but 10 years ago, five years ago, it would've been difficult to imagine Philadelphia to be a finalist for this position," said Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dan Hilferty.
According to the city's public-private economic development corporation (PIDC), $460,000 was invested for the proposal, $400,000 of that was invested from the PIDC.
"While Philadelphia was not ultimately chosen for Amazon's HQ2, I thank Amazon for its consideration and am honored that we were among the top contenders," Kenney said. "I also recognize the value of this competitive process, which has benefited our city in many ways. It put Philadelphia in the national (and international) spotlight – increasing our visibility to other companies and showing our viability for other large-scale projects. It also required key stakeholders from various sectors to come together like never before and unite around a shared message and strategy for our city. I am hopeful that we will continue to harness the energy found throughout this process and apply it to future business attraction, retention, and expansion efforts in Philadelphia."
"I think we'll see the remnants of 50,000 direct jobs and probably over a hundred thousand indirect jobs come out of this decision and we happen to be geographically located in the middle of it and so not chosen but I think Philadelphia is in a very good position," said Epps.
