Dane County has submitted its pitch to be the home of the next Amazon headquarters, joining more than 100 communities nationwide hoping to attract the online giant and the promise of 50,000 jobs.
On Wednesday, the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) submitted a 180-page application.
"We are a younger version of Seattle and Amazon can grow with us," MadREP president Paul Jadin said.
The race for the new headquarters kicked off last month with an announcement on Amazon’s website.
"We expect to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs," Amazon wrote on its website. "In addition to Amazon's direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community."
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin layed out his vision for Madison’s bid during an Oct. 19, 2017 news conference.
Among the requirements in Amazon’s request for proposal is that it plans to locate in a city with a metropolitan population of 1 million or more.
Soglin said it’s not a stretch to consider Madison. He said if Rock County, including Janesville and Beloit, includes about 866,000 residents. Along with Jefferson County the area has close to 1 million people.
“When we look at the intent of what Amazon is doing, we think we qualify,” Soglin said.
Soglin said he isn’t opposed to incentives, and he said the city would us TIFF designations to facilitate the project. However. Soglin said any incentives should be reasonable. Soglin previously has said the package of incentives being put together for tech giant Foxconn is excessive.
Anther requirement of Amazon is access to walking and biking infrastructure. Soglin took aim at a state budget proposal that would strip municipalities of the ability to condemn properties for infrastructure projects. He said the city would need to build roads, biking and walking routes for the new facility.
“We think Madison will be competitive in all other areas,” Soglin said.
Soglin said city staff would begin working on the proposal today and will have it ready by the deadline in three weeks.
For more go to WKOW: http://www.wkow.com/story/36637259/2017/10/19/could-amazon-come-to-madison-mayor-soglin-thinks-so