St. Louis region officially submits Amazon HQ2 bid that includes metro-east

The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership submitted its bid Thursday to Amazon to attract the company’s second headquarters, or HQ2, but officials involved in the process are not disclosing any details.

The St. Louis bid includes the Illinois side of the river. Amazon required confidentiality in the bidding process, according to people involved in the process.

“This is totally standard in the economic development world,” said Katy Jamboretz, vice president of marketing and communications at the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, the organization that crafted and submitted the proposal on behalf of the St. Louis region.

Terry Beach, the economic development director for St. Clair County, agreed. “Confidentiality is the backbone of economic development,” he said.

Beach said he did not know when details might be made public.

In a press release issued Wednesday, the partnership stated that the proposal it submitted consisted of a site on the St. Louis and St. Clair County riverfront as well as in downtown St. Louis.

“We have a very important agreement with Amazon not to share details of this proposal publicly, which I hope that everyone understands,” St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said in a statement from the partnership. “But the important part is that we are working together. This is the first time I can remember Missouri and Illinois working in unison on a Mississippi River development project.”

In an effort to sweeten the bid for both St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said that Amazon could benefit from the building of a Hyperloop, a kind of extremely high-speed above-ground that’s being developed by Telsa, the automotive company, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The idea behind the technology is transporting people in a low-pressure tube. By cutting down on drag, the Hyperloop could transport people quickly between Missouri’s two biggest cities, with a possible stop in Columbia in the center of the state.

The estimated travel time between Kansas City and St. Louis is 25 minutes in the Hyperloop, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The St. Louis bid was celebrated by three metro-east Congressmen.

“This is an exciting time for Amazon, and we believe that the application from the St. Louis region exceeds all of the requirements to begin the next part of Amazon’s growth,” wrote Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; John Shimkus, R-Collinsville; and Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, in a letter to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder.

Chicago reportedly submitted its bid Tuesday.

The second Amazon headquarters would create 50,000 jobs and required it be near a major population center with access to a major airport and modern transportation system.

This story was originally published October 19, 2017 at 12:56 PM with the headline "St. Louis region officially submits Amazon HQ2 bid that includes metro-east."