Philadelphia Formally Enters Amazon HQ2 Race

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney officially announced the city's bid for Amazon to set up its second headquarters in the city on Thursday morning. The city also debuted a new website designed to highlight the area's talent, logistics, livability, and three proposed sites for Amazon.

The three sites are Schuylkill Yards and uCity Square in University City and the Navy Yard.

All three sites are just a short distance away from Philadelphia International Airport.

You can check out the proposal's website here.

The city also released a video called "Philadelphia Delivers" in step with the recent #PhillyDelivers social campaign that reached nearly 5 million people in the last month.

Watch the video below:

In his announcement Thursday at the Barnes Foundation, Kenney thanked the diverse coalition that made the Philadelphia region’s bid for Amazon HQ2 possible, following the official submission of the proposal to Amazon.

"The support we received from the leaders and the residents of this region in preparing our bid for HQ2 is really inspiring - not only because we received so much support, but also because we received it from so many different types of people," said Mayor Kenney. "Thanks to their insight, we were able to show that Philadelphia is in the Goldilocks zone for Amazon. Our location is central on the Northeast corridor, our talent pool is vast, and Philadelphia has all of the amenities Amazon's employees want, at a lower cost than other big cities."

The announcement comes a day after Delaware County submitted a proposal for the HQ2 to come to Delco.

More than 65 college and university presidents and over 150 business leaders signed letters of support for Philadelphia’s bid. More than 90 entrepreneurs and tech start-ups also provided testimonials.

Wharton students organized two different competitions around the bid and Campus Philly surveyed local students about how HQ2 would impact them.

Philadelphia’s ethnic business associations, small businesses and community development associations participated in weekly calls and shared their perspectives on the Philadelphia region’s proposal.

Visit Philadelphia and PHLCVB lent their resources and years of expertise illustrating Philadelphia’s greatness. City Council and our state officials made a strong case for Philadelphia as Amazon’s new home.

Elected leaders from each of the 11 counties across the Philadelphia region committed to supporting HQ2 in Greater Philadelphia, regardless of where it lands in the region.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the Philadelphia region. The process of mounting the bid cemented my belief that Philadelphia is perfectly suited for Amazon," John Fry, President of Drexel University and Board Chair of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, which hosted this morning’s event, said. "We have the talent, size, space, location and leadership that a great company like Amazon wants. After working with so many exceptional leaders, including Mayor Jim Kenney, John Grady at PIDC, Commerce Director Harold Epps, and Matt Cabrey at Select Greater Philadelphia, I really like our chances. Even better, the process has helped to galvanize business and government leaders across the Philadelphia region like never before, raising our profile and positioning us to attract and support other businesses."

The new website aimed at drawing Amazon's attention was made by an all-Philadelphia team consisting of the Tactile Group, Leveler, Azavea, Skai Blue Media, Interface Studio and J2 Design. Nearly 30 representatives from Philadelphia’s arts, culture, culinary, athletic, business and real estate sectors also lent their voices for the five videos, including Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems, Brigitte Daniel.

"Access to the amazing talent coming out of our more than 100 colleges and universities is fueling our pipeline of growth," Daniel said. "Combine that fact with our excellent quality of life, and it is easy to recruit new talent here from around the world. For technology companies like Amazon, Greater Philadelphia’s talent capital is critical to long-term success in this region, across the country and around the world."

Kenney concluded his remarks Thursday by announcing his plans to visit Philadelphia businesses to hear directly from the city’s CEOs and employees how we can build off the Amazon HQ2 bid and strengthen Philadelphia’s business attraction and retention efforts year-round.

The “Philadelphia Delivers” tour will kick off at WeWork on Oct. 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Amazon has grown from a website that focused on selling books into a global e-commerce leader for the largest variety of products in the world.

Earlier this month, the Seattle-based company announced that it will invest $5 billion to build a second headquarters that will be "a full equal" to its Seattle campus. The headquarters will be somewhere in North America and will create 50,000 high-paying jobs.

Patch file photo