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Niles property out for Amazon HQ, chamber backs Cleveland site
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown-Warren area is no longer an option for Amazon’s second headquarters.
Last week, the Youngs-town/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 a 45-minute drive 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.
The site itself, however, was a fit. Enterprise Park is 105 greenfield acres in Trumbull County. It’s adjacent to the more than 100-acre Eastwood Mall Complex. A priority for Amazon was a greenfield site that needed to be about 100 acres or more.
On Monday, Boyarko and Tom Humphries, chamber president and CEO, and COO James Dignan met with local leaders Frank Fuda, chairman of the Trumbull County commissioners; Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti; Warren Mayor Doug Franklin; Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally and others to inform them of the decision.
TeamNEO, an economic-development organization that partners with JobsOhio, directed The Vindicator to Dix & Eaton, a communications firm in Cleveland that was a part of a public/private coalition that came together to produce the Cleveland proposal.
David Hertz, managing director at Dix & Eaton, would not disclose any information on the Cleveland site because he said it is “proprietary.”
“This is highly competitive,” Hertz said. “We believe ours is a compelling proposal. The proposal effort was a collaborative effort.”
The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland reported 20 organizations were a part of the effort to attract Amazon and the proposal was submitted by TeamNEO.
Amazon received 238 proposals from cities and regions in 54 states, provinces, districts and territories in North America.
“I have not seen the proposal for Cleveland, but being familiar with [the Greater Cleveland Partnership] and other parties, I am pretty confident they put together a very competitive package,” Boyarko said. “I definitely think they do have a chance.”
Amazon coming to Cleveland would still benefit the Valley, Boyarko said, with employment opportunities, new investment from spinoff opportunities and potential for local expansion.
Anthony Cafaro Jr., co-president of the Cafaro Co., who publicly offered Enterprise Park to Amazon for $1 and $20 million in seed money to Amazon for site preparation, construction and other development purposes, wasn’t disappointed Enterprise Park would not be considered.
“I am pleased that there are other [area] sites and having a site, whether in Cleveland or [here], would be extremely beneficial for the Mahoning Valley,” he said.