Regional chamber withdraws Amazon bid, now supporting Cleveland

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown/Warren area is no longer an option for Amazon’s second headquarters.

Last week, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber said Cafaro Co.-owned Enterprise Park in Niles was to be offered as a potential site for Amazon.

The Vindicator on Sunday detailed the Mahoning Valley’s shortcomings in Amazon’s key preferences, including not being a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, not having the workforce needed to fill up to 50,000 jobs at the headquarters, not within 30 miles of a major population center and not within 45 minutes away from an international airport,

On Wednesday, the chamber, with its economic development partners, TeamNEO and JobsOhio, announced that since the Valley proposal did not meet what Amazon needs for its second headquarters, local officials will support the decision of TeamNEO and JobsOhio to submit an unnamed Cleveland site that does meet the Amazon preferences.

Bids were due Oct. 19. Amazon will announce the location of its second headquarters next year.

“We had a conversation with TeamNEO about all the criteria and the fact that our community was lacking in some of those requirements and that our site was not going any further in the process,” said Sarah Boyarko, senior vice president of economic development at the chamber. “It wasn’t a shock.”

Amazon opened up a bidding war in North America for one city to receive an expected $5 billion investment and up to 50,000 jobs over a decade.

Read more about the about-face in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.