Waterloo Region not out of Amazon headquarters bid
Posted Sep 14, 2017 07:22:38 AM.
Last Updated Sep 15, 2017 06:12:46 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The quest to land Amazon’s second headquarters just became a lot harder for Waterloo Region. Or has it?
Bloomberg is reporting Toronto is submitting a joint bid with Mississauga, Halton, York, Brampton and Durham Region.
Kitchener’s Mayor tells 570 NEWS that he has chatted with Toronto Mayor John Tory this week and the discussion was “very positive around collaboration”. Berry Vrbanovic says WREDC CEO Tony LaMantia has also been in touch with his counterpart at Toronto Global to indicate “we believe a bid is stronger as a combined Toronto-Waterloo Region bid”. Mayor Vrbanovic says they look forward to further dialogue with them to move a proposal forward.
The project could cost more than $5 billion and is expected to create 50,000 jobs over a 17 year period.
Proposals are due October 19th.
U.S. cities said to be interested include Chicago and Memphis.
Last week, Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky told 570 NEWS, the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation is working with the province on a sales pitch, but right now it’s early days in terms of determining how the bid will look.
“Amazon will get many proposals from many states and many provinces, and that’s why it’s really important for us to take a provincial approach,” Jaworsky says, “To look at what our strengths are here, and make sure we address those needs.”
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said it’s a coordinated bid between the entire region.
“We made the decision well over a year ago to approach any of these kinds of economic development initiatives collaboratively through the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation, so I think that the fact that the bid is out there now is a great opportunity for this Region.”
A spokesperson at the Ministry of Economic Development and Growth told 570 NEWS their officials are fully engaged in the process, adding that Toronto and Ottawa have also been in touch with Queen’s Park. But from the province’s perspective, they just want Amazon to put its massive complex somewhere in Ontario.
