Valley officials propose the area for Amazon headquarters

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A group of Mahoning Valley officials has submitted a proposal to become the second corporate headquarters for Amazon even though they acknowledge it’s unlikely to land the business.

The main point, officials say, is to work together.

The company plans to spend more than $5 billion to build another headquarters – the first is in Seattle – to employ up to 50,000 workers.

The local group includes Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Humphries, Chief Operating Officer James Dignan and Senior Vice President of Economic Development Sarah Boyarko as well as Youngstown Mayor John McNally, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin, Trumbull County commissioners and Mahoning County commissioners.

“Though this opportunity may seem out of reach for our market, this type of collaboration is exactly what it takes to effectively compete for these opportunities,” Dignan said. “We all recognize that success in regional economic development is accomplished through partnerships, and our role at the Regional Chamber is to coordinate with our counties, cities, townships and villages to drive job creation and new capital investment in the Valley through business attraction, retention and expansion efforts. The long-term goal of all of our partners is to ultimately advance economic development and the related activities supporting the growth of jobs in the Valley.”

McNally said: “I would say this is a longer shot to get, but we believe it’s a good idea to come up with a plan. This gets us on the state’s radar and Amazon’s radar for future projects. We want to work collaboratively.”

The group reviewed the requirements for HQ2 to determine whether our market fits Amazon’s criteria.

While the Youngstown-Warren region doesn’t meet all of these requirements, according to the chamber, the group decided to submit the top site in the two-county area to Team NEO/JobsOhio as a starting point. JobsOhio has an existing relationship with Amazon, working with the company on several projects throughout the state this year, and is also coordinating the submissions to the company from across Ohio.

The chamber is the designated economic development partner of Team NEO and JobsOhio and takes the lead on the local coordination of such opportunities.