The Gateway Commerce Center, home to Amazon’s present Edwardsville facilities
(Photo courtesy of Contegra Construction Co.)

Edwardsville and O’Fallon will among the more than 100 U.S. communities vying for Amazon’s planned new second headquarters complex.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership may both play a role in developing the two bids.

Seattle-based Amazon.com on Sept. 7 announced plans for a second North American headquarters and began encouraging municipalities across to submit bids to host the new facility.  The new complex – to be called “Amazon HQ2” – will have 50,000 employees and cost $5 billion to construct and operate, according to the company.

Proposals for the second Amazon campus are due Oct. 19. The company is expected to announce its final site selection sometime in 2018.

Edwardsville officials on Sept. 15 convened a special committee to prepare a bid for Amazon HQ2. The city’s I-55 Development Corridor is already home to two Amazon distribution centers.

Last week in his period newsletter to residents, O’Fallon Mayor Herb Roach described a 5,000-acre tract north of Scott Air Force Base as a “perfect” location for the new Amazon campus and his city would attempt to attract the online retailing giant.

The O’Fallon-area tract was assembled by St. Clair County authorities as a proposed site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) new western campus – which the high-tech spy agency has opted to locate across the Mississippi River in North St. Louis.

St. Clair County Department of Economic Development officials announced Sept. xx that they will be preparing a proposal for the new Amazon complex, although they did not indicate a specific site.

Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Sept. 19 jointly dispatched a team to Amazon headquarter in Seattle to pitch the Windy City as a site for Amazon HQ2. However, in announcing that envoy, Rauner also touted Metro East as a location the new Amazon facility and said he would be willing to work with St. Louis authorities on a joint bid for the complex.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announced Sept. 7 that she and St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger plan to work through the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, a joint city county agency, to submit a proposal for the Amazon facility.

While acknowledging Chicago as his primary recommendation to Amazon for an HQ2 location, “St. Louis is also competing, and we have a major population center in Metro East, we have major strategic transportation advantages in Metro East around the St. Louis area, and we will be working in assistance with the St. Louis proposal,” Gov. Rauner said at a news conference. “St. Louis has some benefits that they bring in terms of their overall package, and we want to make sure Illinois is positioned to be a great benefactor of that.”

Illinois’ Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit program, recently extended through 2022, could be an attractive feature of a joint St. Louis-Metro East bid to Amazon, the governor’s office suggests.   Amazon has already received Edge tax credits for a fulfillment center in Joliet. The program provides incentives for job development in economically disadvantaged areas.

Rauner last week noted Metro East offers many of the transportation resources desired by Amazon.

The three industrial parks comprising Edwardsville’s I-55 Corridor have already become a major regional distribution center.  The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership has embraced the I-55 Corridor development, incorporating it into the agency’s Midwest Corridor and St. Louis Freightway initiatives. The St. Clair County tract offers direct access to MIdAmerica Airport, the MetroLink light rail system, and i-64 via new, specially-constructed, connector roads, O’Fallon Mayor Roach notes.

Edwardsville officials last week said they would like to be part of the St. Louis bid for the Amazon facility. St. Clair County authorities have not yet publicly commented on the prospects for working with their former St. Louis rivals for the NGA facility.

Amazon’s request for proposals comes as St. Clair County is rebranding the tract assembled for the NGA as the Mid America Commerce Center (MACC) for marketing to other governmental or private entities

The MACC “boasts a number of significant attributes that makes development here attractive, particularly as it relates to the proximity of Scott Air Force Base and the Base’s focus on technology and particular focus on logistics and cyber security,” according to a recent Urban Land Institute study, commissioned by the county on the tract.

State Representative Charlie Meier, R-108^th, is offered his support in helping to bring Amazon to O’Fallon, according to Mayor Roach.

— Edwardsville, O’Fallon to bid for Amazon HQ2  —-