North Texas City Bows Out Of HQ2 Race
Arlington, Texas, is no longer a contender for Amazon's second headquarters.
Dallas-Fort Worth is on Amazon's HQ2 shortlist, and multiple North Texas cities have bids within that banner.
Arlington had offered $921M in incentives, including a 100% tax abatement for 10 years, a waiver of building and impact fees and the creation of a municipal management district to issue tax-exempt bonds for infrastructure. It released its pitch Tuesday, something it could not do before it withdrew itself from HQ2 consideration.
The city had proposed Globe Life Park (home to the Texas Rangers, which are relocating to a new stadium in 2020) as the site of HQ2.
“It’s unique to have a single spot that can accommodate 50,000 people, which is I think what interested them," Arlington Economic Development Manager Bruce Payne told the Dallas Business Journal. “But long story short, just as they had originally indicated, they are probably looking for a more traditional downtown environment that has a fairly well-developed transit system. That was probably our biggest shortcoming, which we knew.”
Globe Life Park remains up for grabs, and is well-positioned to attract another megadevelopment.
“With 1.7M SF of existing building space and water, sewer, storm water, power and underground communications infrastructure already in place, Globe Life Park is a prime location to accommodate a corporate headquarters the size of Amazon HQ2,” the city said in a statement Tuesday.
Arlington has been a steady office market and is burgeoning as an entertainment destination with the new stadium and the development of Texas Live! The lack of HQ2 may be a blessing for the city; critics say the massive 8M SF, 50,000-employee development could cause as much pain as benefit for growing cities.
