Amazon’s HQ2 RFP: A Blueprint for Future Economic Development?

Posted on October 12, 2017

Amazon’s search for a second headquarters has North American cities scrambling for ways to attract the world’s fourth-largest corporation. However, jurisdictions, even those not in the running, should take their economic development cues from Amazon’s HQ2 Request for Proposals (RFP), according to Brookings Institution’s Amy Liu and Mark Muro. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, “What Amazon’s HQ2 Wish List Signals about the Future of Cities,” Liu and Muro’s advice to cities that want to attract high-tech industry is “not to just polish up branding and marketing materials and wait for the next Amazon-scale business attraction opportunity,” nor rely on assembling parcels and offering generous subsidies. Rather, cities need to examine the criteria outlined in the RFP and “ask whether they’ve done enough to build up the fundamental assets prized by innovative firms and industries.” Those assets include:

• Capacity to produce skilled technical talent, including partnerships with higher education institutions along with science programming in K-12 education.
• Modern infrastructure. The presence of highway networks, international airports, and high-speed broadband to reach global and domestic markets.
• Connected and sustainable placemaking. Amazon’s RFP emphasizes its “interest in promoting walkability and connectivity between densely clustered buildings through sidewalks, bike lanes, trams, metro, bus, light rail, train and additional creative options.”

Localities that invest in people, infrastructure and quality places rather than offering only traditional incentive packages, according to the authors, will attract the attention of forward-thinking firms.