After a nationwide call , cities across America are looking to land Amazon’s second headquarters attracting bids from big cities like Chicago. But, Edwardsville, in the Metro East near St. Louis, is also throwing its hat in the ring.
Touting available flat land, transportation access and a rapidly growing area, Madison County and Edwardsville officials say they’re as good of a contender as any. Their proposal will be included within one bid for the entire Metro East area.
Jim Alexander, Senior VP of economic development for the St. Louis Regional Chamber says, they have close to 20 submissions from the St. Louis area at this time. “We’ll put together one proposal that presents the absolute best sites within our region and submit those to Amazon by October 19th.”
Community leaders, along with the Chamber, will be involved in the final evaluation and selection of sites included in the bid before they send it off to Amazon.
“This is a single economic unit,” said Alexander, speaking about the Metro East. “It’s a single work force pool and wherever Amazon goes in the St. Louis region, the entire region wins.”
The new headquarters is expected to bring with it 50,000 jobs.