St. Louis area’s Amazon HQ2 bid will include site on St. Clair County riverfront

The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership confirmed Friday that St. Clair County will be included as a location in the final site proposal for Amazon’s second headquarters.

Kathryn Jamboretz, vice president of marketing and communications for the St. Louis partnership, said the plan is still being written and that the exact location in St. Clair County where some of the headquarters’ infrastructure would be could be revealed as early as next week. Proposals are due the week after that, on Oct. 19.

“We are going to present one unified bid to Amazon,” said Sheila Sweeney, the partnership’s CEO. “It will include an outstanding stretch of riverfront in St. Clair County.”

About two dozen locations throughout the bistate region were being reviewed. The final bid will consist of one recommended plan as to where Amazon’s infrastructure would go, Jamboretz said. Other St. Louis-area locations that did not make the cut will be included in an index, she said.

Amazon, which plans to employ 50,000 workers with an average salary of $100,000, requires that only one proposal be submitted per metropolitan statistical area. For the St. Louis region, the metropolitan area encompasses both sides of the Mississippi River.

Jamboretz said she thought the regional unity in the partnership’s approach would appeal to Amazon and that it is different from other cities, some of which are submitting multiple bids.

“We think pitching a development site on both sides of America’s greatest river is exactly the kind of big idea Amazon wants to see,” Sweeney said.

This story was originally published October 6, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "St. Louis area’s Amazon HQ2 bid will include site on St. Clair County riverfront."