After over a year of fanfare and speculation, the decision has been made regarding Amazon’s second headquarters. It’s not coming to Brampton, Mississauga, Toronto or anywhere else in the GTA. The worldwide retail giant declared that, after reviewing a waitlist of 20 potential cities that included a bid by the Toronto Region through the investment firm Toronto Global, they have chosen New York City and northern Virginia as the site for their ‘Amazon HQ2’.
Amazon will invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs over the two new headquarters locations, with more than 25,000 employees each in New York City and Arlington, Virginia. “We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
“These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will assist us with, investing for clients for years to come. The team worked superbly choosing these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”
But although Amazon has decided not to set up their enormous second headquarters in Canada, since Toronto was the main Canadian bid among the last 20, the way that this area was on that shortlist has resulted in a ‘windfall of interest and investment,’ according to Toronto Global.
“Since presenting our offered, Toronto Global has added 259 companies to our pipeline, and there has been a 400 percent increase in traffic to our site, more than 22,000 notices of the Toronto Region on social media and nearly 16,000 notices in online media publications. The Amazon HQ2 procedure has generated $143 million in Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) crosswise over both social and online media as a result of the exposure for the Toronto Region.”
Indeed, the Toronto region’s bid was made available online for full viewing and review by invested parties. So while Amazon chose to go elsewhere, different organizations got a decent take a gander at what the GTA has to offer and put money in, such as Microsoft, Uber, Intel, and Pinterest.
What do you think of Brampton not getting the Amazon HQ2 bid?
“This approach resulted in over 17,300 downloads to date investing and prompted a wide range of commercial inquiries. Many of the companies our investment attraction team has worked with in recent months have referenced our bid book as a key resource that provided an in-depth overview of the diverse business offering across the region,” says Toronto Global.
As for more local reaction, the City of Brampton had this to say regarding Amazon’s decision:
“This was a clear signal that Brampton, and the rest of the Toronto region, is recognized the world as an attractive destination for business investment. Brampton is a proven competitor, and will to compete on the global stage for jobs and investment”
“The location presented to Amazon – the CAA lands – remains an integral component to the city’s jobs and investment attraction strategy. The site, referred to as Uptown in Brampton’s 2040 Vision, is a multi-use centerpiece to the future of the city. The site is a key improvement opportunity that represents more than 110 acres of publicly owned, a premium real estate located next to two major highways and minutes away from a major international airport.”
“Since the submission of Brampton’s Amazon HQ2 bid, the city has been working to make the site investment ready, completing essential due constancy baseline studies about and exploring development approaches and models. City staff has likewise been collaborating with different levels of government to investigate possibilities for joint investment into the site, including the opportunity to connect the site to the 410 and 407 highways.”
Even if the GTA didn’t get Amazon HQ2, the air of optimism continues to ring in terms of the long-term investments into a growing tech sector in the Toronto area. One advantage that gets frequently touted is that Toronto didn’t offer enormous tax breaks or financial incentives to Amazon in exchange for Amazon HQ2.
This response came from newly elected New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Amazon coming to New York: "The idea that [Amazon] will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks… when our subway is crumbling and our communities need more investment… is extremely concerning to residents here." https://t.co/luhuqDMppm pic.twitter.com/FSGyfuvq3w
— CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2018
Still, others would see that Brampton and the GTA maybe evaded a bullet with regards to Amazon. The organization started as a humble online retailer which has now grown into one of the biggest companies in the world, akin to almost a government in and of itself. The American comedian Hasan Minhaj did a piece about the power of Amazon recently on his new Netflix special, Patriot Act.
The idea of having such a monolithic presence in the local economy would surely have dominated the potential for others to grow as well. Even if Brampton and the GTA didn’t get Amazon, at least people are paying attention to us and that could only be a good thing for the future of the economy down the road.
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