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What Chicago site might win Amazon ‘HQ2’ sweepstakes? Here are 6 . . .
Chicago News 09/13/2017, 08:07pm
Chicago's Old Main Post Office could provide an ideal branding opportunity for Amazon's second North American corporate headquarters. The above is a Sun-Times photo illustration of how "wrapping" the building with an Amazon logo might look. Chicago will compete with other cities to try to land the facility and its tens of thousands of jobs.
Fran Spielman
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Wanted: Eight million square feet in a metropolitan area of at least a million people in a “stable and business-friendly environment” within 45 minutes of an international airport.
Site or multiple sites welcome, but must be big enough to grow to 50,000 employees. Accessible to mass transit and close to major highways. Vacant land, existing buildings or a combination of the two a must. Think big. Be creative. But be quick about it. Bids are due Oct. 19.
Amazon’s decision to build a second North American corporate headquarters, known as “HQ2,” has touched off a whirlwind competition for the economic development prize of the century.
If Chicago hopes to win it, the city must get inside the head of CEO Jeff Bezos, study his track record and corporate philosophy and put together a competitive incentive package for the site that best anticipates those needs.
Several sites appear to fit the Bezos/Amazon mold, including the Old Main Post Office over the Eisenhower Expy. and Congress Parkway; the Michael Reese Hospital site along Lake Michigan; McCormick Place East or a combination of the last two, and two prime locations in the old North Branch Industrial Corridor along the Chicago River.
“Instead of focusing on the real estate, focus on the man,” said Chicago developer J. Paul Beitler, who has no stake in any of the prospective sites. Bezos is “a man who wants everything for free. He moves quickly. He buys Whole Foods in one month. He’s not going to sit around while you build him a building. And if he does build a building . . . it’s not going to be a monument.”
“He will dance with this with all of the various cities. But at the end of the day, it’s all about cheap. He makes his profits in pennies. He builds big empty warehouses. He’s not gonna sit around while a committee decides what the design is gonna be and pay the cost and take the risk. He’s not that kind of a risk-taker. He’s a bulk buyer. . . . Where can you go to buy bulk cheap?”
A look at the top prospective HQ2 sites in Chicago:
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THE OLD MAIN POST OFFICE:
It has 2.5 million square feet. But as far as Beitler is concerned, no other site in Chicago fits the Amazon/Bezos model.
“If it goes anywhere, it’ll go to an existing building that’s close to driving and rail transportation, that accesses the Millenials, that has the look of what Amazon’s about, which is a big factory,” Beitler said. “There’s no other building around that has the size, the location, that can get the TIF from the city and everything else that this can. He literally walks into it for free.”
Developer Dan McCaffery added, “It’s hard to vote against the Post Office in so many ways. Geez. It’s right there, sitting on transportation. Sitting on a major freeway and still basically walkable to downtown.”
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