Arlington Out Of Amazon HQ2 Bid: See Proposal, Photos

ARLINGTON, TX — The City of Arlington, after announcing Tuesday it is no longer in the race to bring Amazon's HQ2 to the city, has shared photos and other details of the city's proposal.

Arlington remains very supportive of our region’s on-going effort to secure HQ2 and its thousands of high-paying new jobs, which will benefit the North Texas region, a spokesperson for the city wrote in a press release.

“We were enthused that our vision for HQ2 caught the attention of Amazon,” said City Manager Trey Yelverton. “The company created a thoughtful selection process. You could clearly see the value Amazon places on community partnerships as well as on the welfare of its employees, the ability to attract and retain qualified workers, and the impact HQ2 would have on the culture of the community.”

The proposed site for HQ2 was adjacent to 1.7 million square feet of existing building space and water, sewer, storm water, power and underground communications infrastructure already in place, Globe Life Park is a prime location to accommodate a corporate headquarters the size of Amazon HQ2.

The 200-plus acre site is also located near four major highways and two miles of hike and bike trails that connect Downtown Arlington to the University of Texas at Arlington.

The City said the site is within walking distance of a proposed future high-speed rail station.

“We’re extremely confident that Globe Life Park will find a new life and continue to be a vibrant component of our world-class Entertainment District and anchor our future Central Business District,” said Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams. “The interest by Amazon and its executives strongly confirms that this site has great economic development potential. It is primed for a continued substantive commercial presence in Arlington. We couldn’t be more excited about its future and the future of our Entertainment District.”

As part of its competitive proposal, the City of Arlington offered Amazon performance-based incentives, which were consistent with the tools used on other City of Arlington economic development projects, valued at a projected $921 million. This included:

• A grant for Amazon’s hiring of Arlington residents
• 100 percent real and business personal property tax abatement for a 10-year period
• Waiver of building and impact fees
• A land and infrastructure grant to assist with redeveloping the site that includes a structured parking partnership
• Creation of a Municipal Management District (MMD)

The size of the performance-based incentive package directly correlated to the size of the investment being proposed by Amazon and would have only been fully implemented had Amazon fulfilled its commitment to invest $5 billion and create 50,000 high-paying jobs in Arlington. The expenses for the project would come from the revenue generated by the Amazon investment. The long-term economic impact of the headquarters and its job creation would have been transformative for our community.

A 10-year economic model indicated this project could bring 96,000-plus permanent jobs, almost $50 billion in salaries and wages and almost $4 billion in taxable sales, the city said.

All images via City of Arlington