Is #BrooklynPrime for Amazon HQ2?

BROOKLYN – Amazon.com is looking for somewhere to build its second home, HQ2, and many in Brooklyn think it would be a prime location for the online mega-retailer.

Borough President Eric L. Adams and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Hoan wrote an open letter to the company, pitching Brooklyn’s merits as they aligned to Amazon’s Request for Proposal, a document that included a number of stipulations.

“We have no doubt that America’s fourth- (and soon-to-be third-) largest city is the best choice you can make for your second corporate headquarters,” the letter read.

Brooklyn’s population of more than 2.6 million is just shy of Chicago’s 2.7 million, and well in line with Amazon’s requirement of 1 million residents.

And when it comes to tech talent and a university system?

City Tech and NYU Tandon have created a tech hub along the Jay Street corridor, says TheBridgeBK.

“Some of America’s best universities are located in our burgeoning downtown, with more college students in Brooklyn’s Tech Triangle than in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” the letter states, touting Brooklyn’s features while throwing shade at Boston, also in the running for Amazon’s relocation.

Other requirements may prove tricky, however.

Amazon wants its employees to have easy access to mass transit, and while Brooklyn’s 157 subway stations serving 17 lines sound impressive, a summer of delays and a crumbling infrastructure aren’t exactly reassuring.

What else does Amazon want for its employees? A high quality of life.

Most New Yorkers will swear up and down ours is the fairest city on Earth, and most Brooklynites will stick up for their borough when it comes to art, culture, cooking and that all-important cool, but there’s one sticking point: housing costs.

New York as a whole was knocked out of contention by its rising housing costs in an analysis run by the Times of locations that fit their requirements due to the quality of life issues.

Still, Brooklyn is undaunted, especially when it comes to securing a projected 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion capital investment.

“The sad reality is that outside the geographical boundaries of many of our prosperous areas in the borough, we still have communities that are in despair. They feel as though the popularity of our brand has not transformed into prosperity for them.Amazon can help us change that,” said Adams.

The RFP estimates a $100,000 average annual total compensation of the employees at Amazon’s new site (over its 10-15 year development), which is more than double Brooklyn’s median annual household income. That money would hopefully find its way into the community at large and bolster Brooklyn’s economy.

Of course, Amazon needs office space—and lots of it. The RFP calls for more than 500,00 sq. ft. of space for Phase 1 in 2019, with that figure moving into the millions as HQ2 continues to grow.

Adams and Hoan’s letter mentions the “prime options along Brooklyn’s Innovation Coast already in construction, stretching from Sunset Park to Williamsburg,” suitable to all phases of development.

In Sunset Park’s Industry City, owners like Jamestown, Rudin Management, Forest City and Rubenstein Partners are working together to pitch their office space, Crain’s reports. Their 6 million sq. ft. of space would provide long-term solutions for Amazon.

But smaller operations could help out, too. An office building under construction in Williamsburg, 25 Kent, would hit the mark for Phase 1, with half a million square feet of modern office space.

President of 25 Kent developer Rubenstein Partners, Jeff Fronek, told Crain’s, “Our building meets that need and has spanning views of the Manhattan skyline so we think it would be a perfect fit.”

Whether up or down the Innovation Coast, in the Tech Triangle or Broadway Triangle, Brooklyn has a lot to offer. The relocation campaign, hashtagged as #BrooklynPrime in a play on Amazon’s subscription service, will continue to advertise just that in weeks to come.

Of course, much of the decision will come down to the underpinnings of great corporate expansion and investment: tax credits, land use, and relocation investment, just to name a few.

While Boston’s mayor is “not going to get into a bidding war with another city over something like this,” other places may be willing to up the ante for what some are calling “the trophy deal of the decade.”

Of course, even with Borough President Adams eager and out in front of the pack on this, New York will make its pitch as a whole, sometime before the October 19th deadline.

No matter the outcome, it’s nice to be reminded of Brooklyn’s strengths, as Adams wrote in his letter: “Most important, we have the human capital any top-tier global business is looking for; with 90 spoken languages, Brooklyn is the living embodiment of the United Nations.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?