Bay Area Cities Team Up For Amazon HQ2
Several Bay Area cities plan to work together rather than against each other to try to get Amazon to build its second headquarters in the region. Concord, Fremont, Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco will craft a Bay Area-wide bid to woo Amazon, the East Bay Times reports. Since Amazon’s request for proposals says only one city can submit a bid for a metropolitan region, these cities decided to team up, according to Concord Director of Community Reuse Planning Guy Bjerke.
Concord’s biggest selling point is the 5,000-acre Concord Naval Weapons Station, which would fall under Amazon’s requirements of a property that is at least 1M SF that could grow into 8M SF by 2027. It also is within 45 minutes of an airport, is next to Highway 4 and Interstate 680, has two BART stations nearby and is within 30 miles of a population center. It is currently planned to be turned into a massive master planned development.
San Francisco also has a handful of large sites that could work, including FivePoint’s Shipyard project along the waterfront. San Jose and Vallejo also said they would consider bids. The Bay Area will face stiff competition from many other cities throughout the country.
