With Amazon’s decision to back out of putting a major office in New York’s Long Island City, Montgomery County officials are hopeful that the company will reconsider the region for another headquarters.
In an interview Wednesday, hours before Amazon’s Thursday announcement it was dropping plans for New York, County Executive Marc Elrich said that the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. had been active in trying to lure Amazon to the county.
“The economic development corporation is making efforts to say, ‘Hey. We’re here, we’re interested,’” Elrich said.
Reports surfaced last week that the online retail giant would abandon plans for New York offices and rekindled hopes that other properties would be reconsidered.
Elrich said the company hadn’t reached out for proposals.
David Petr, the CEO of the economic development group, said last week that because the county had been a top 20 finalist during last year’s search, he thought the county would automatically be re-entered into the drawing should Amazon choose to find an alternate location.
“I think our name will always be in the hat,” he said. “I think Amazon is always aware of what we offer, and we would hope they would continue conversations with us if they chose not to pursue New York,” he said.
Additionally, Gov. Larry Hogan has been in talks with Amazon to set up a meeting, his spokesperson Amelia Chasse wrote in an email.
Property in the White Flint area was said to be one of the locations included in the county’s proposal, which also offered road and transit improvements and tax incentives.
Amazon chose Crystal City, Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee and Long Island City as the locations for its other headquarters – dubbed HQ2 — in November after selecting from a list of 20 finalists, which included Montgomery County.
In a Thursday announcement, Amazon confirmed that it would not build the New York headquarters due to opposition from state and local elected officials. The statement indicated that the company has no immediate plans to find an alternate location to New York.
“We do not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time. We will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada,” Amazon announced.
Maryland offered $8.5 billion in incentives last year in an attempt to lure Amazon.
Petr said in the coming months, the MCEDC will be traveling to Orlando, Florida, Austin, Texas and the West Coast twice in order to attract top-level information technology talent. He said the push to look outside for business is “the most proactive” the agency has been since it was formed in 2016. He said if Amazon does choose to pursue another location, the county remains an attractive destination.
“I think the more that Montgomery County recruits existing business, certainly success breeds success and the MCEDC is proving that we’re a great destination for business,” he said.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
