Amazon has lots of questions for Columbus, others in chase for HQ2

Columbus Dispatch

A portion of Columbus’ pitch to lure Amazon’s second headquarters and the 50,000 jobs that come with it included the opiate crisis, population decline in Ohio and hate crimes in the region.

If that sounds like an unusual way to chase a $5 billion investment, economic development and site selection officials would agree. But the unprecedented race for Amazon HQ2 has required answering questions officials say they have never heard from businesses considering the city.

“They asked what are your big challenges. We believe that you don’t make progress on tough issues if you aren’t honest about tough issues,” said Steve Schoeny, Columbus economic development director. “We felt like it made sense to be honest about what are the issues that are challenging for our city.”

Those talking points and other previously undisclosed details about central Ohio’s bid for Amazon were included as part of more than 1,300 pages of documents the city released to The Dispatch on Thursday in response to a public records request.

The documents shed new light on the breadth of information Amazon requested from cities that made the cut for its top 20 list in January. The region answered those questions early this year ahead of a site visit Amazon made in April.

Details about the Amazon proposal have been a closely guarded secret in most cities. Columbus originally used the code name “Project Ares” to refer to its Amazon bid, but documents show it changed to “Project Z” after the original code name was revealed.