Merrimack Valley Officials Tour Sites For Potential Amazon Headquarters

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- Eric Kfoury, North Andover’s Director of Community and Economic Development and Karen Conard, Executive Director of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission met with officials from North Andover, Andover, Haverhill, Lawrence and Methuen last Wednesday to discuss plans to make a pitch for Amazon to locate its second North American headquarters in the Merrimack Valley. The five towns have joined together to compete with towns, cities and regions from across the U.S. and Canada for the rite to host a campus that could create as many as 50,000 jobs.

"Our meetings today went extremely well, and, as always, I was impressed at how cooperative and forward-thinking our MVPC members are," Conard said. "Everyone recognizes the transformational effect that welcoming a company like Amazon could have on our region, and everyone demonstrated a commitment to partnering together to put forward the strongest proposal possible."

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The group toured parcels that could be included in the first round proposal to Amazon, which is due October 19. The coalition previously announced it would pitch the the 168-acre Osgood Landing parcel in North Andover as the main campus, which needs to be able to accomodate a 500,000 square foot building and room to build up to a total of 8 million square feet beyond 2027.

North Andover has been looking for a tenant for the massive property since Lucent scled back operations at the facility in 2003. At its peak, 12,000 people worked there. Most recently, the site has been eyed as a possible site for a cannabis farm as the state continues its move to legalized, recreational marijuana and retail cannabis sales.

Amazon is expected to make its selection in 2018. The coalition's proposal faces steep odds: municipalities throughout North America have entered the Amazon chase, including a competing project that is eyeing the Suffolk Downs horses track in Revere and East Boston. And on Thursday morning, just as the Merrimack Valley group issued a press release announcing the site selection, the Boston Globe reported that analysts were raising concerns that Massachusetts doesn't have enough skilled workers to make a serious bid for Amazon. They worry that Amazon would snatch up all the tech-sector talent and ruin the local business climate that has been friendly to smaller tech startups.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).