PITTSTON TWP. — Whether or not Amazon HQ2 comes to Northeastern Pennsylvania, the determined bid to lure the company has perhaps set the tone for all future economic development.
John Augustine, president/CEO of Penn’s Northeast, gave a detailed presentation Thursday on the cooperative effort that produced the 100-page response to Amazon’s request for proposals.
Augustine revealed the proposal at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, detailing why NEPA is the “prime location for HQ2.” The proposal is one of 238 submitted to Amazon in search of the coveted project.
HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America — the first is in Seattle — and the retail giant is expected to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow its second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.
Recognizing that the odds are limited to being the lucky choice for HQ2, Augustine lauded the effort to prepare the response package.
“This is absolutely the first time there has been such a large regional response to something like this,” Augustine said. “And if not Amazon, maybe there will be another company out there who will notice us and consider us. We can replicate this for all future economic development considerations.”
Augustine said the work on the Amazon bid created a new series of partnerships — between competing colleges and universities, between rival communities, between industry and academia — and a regional entrepreneurial ecosystem was built from the ground up.
As Augustine explained the process, extolling the positives about the region, he took time to display the metal box that was chosen to send five copies of the 100-page proposal to Amazon.
“It was nice to send something to Amazon for a change,” he said. “We wanted the world to know that we have the resources, the talent and the technology here to be successful. We want to help grow the next Amazon in our backyard.”
Zombie preps
Augustine also revealed that part of the package sent to Amazon included a humorous Zombie Apocalypse kit. He learned the company already had a Zombie Apocalypse Guide in its policy book, but he decided to include it anyway.
“I think it shows that we were thinking alike,” he said in joking about the kit.
Six real estate sites were offered as potential locations for HQ2:
• Can Do Corporate Center, Hazleton
• Glenmaura Corporate Center, Moosic
• Arcadia North Business Park, Coolbaugh Township
• Highridge Business Park, Pottsville
• Earth Conservancy Hanover Site 9, Hanover Township
• Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, Avoca
Augustine said the area offers a lot for businesses like Amazon to consider:
• A talent pipeline fueled by 19 different higher education institutions that together account for more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
• Ample opportunities for creative partnerships with colleges, universities, and K-12 educational systems.
• A labor force renowned for its productivity.
• Superb proximity to New York City, New England and other major markets.
• A location adjoining the world’s second-largest natural gas resource.
• A low cost of doing business, combined with a high quality of life built around immediate access to the great outdoors.
Access hub
The report sent to Amazon went on to detail some of the area’s best qualities mentioned above:
• Talent — Northeastern Pennsylvania is comprised of seven counties with a total population of 1,028,926. The region’s urban center is the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, with a population of 558,166.
Today, more than 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students are enrolled at 19 area colleges and universities. The challenge has been keeping those students, who choose to come to school here from around the globe, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Currently, 22 percent of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s workforce has a college degree — compared with 33 percent in the nation as a whole.
• Affordability — A dollar goes much further in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It offers a dramatically lower cost of living compared to similarly large and mid-sized cities in other parts of the country.
In 2015, the Economic Policy Institute reported that the cost of living in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metro area was approximately 95 percent of the U.S. average.
Housing prices comprise a large portion of those cost savings — in August 2017, Zillow reported the MSA’s median home value was $118,500, compared to $201,900 in the U.S. as a whole.
• Access — NEPA is only a two-hour drive from both New York City and Philadelphia. It’s within 600 miles of 50 percent of the nation’s population, and 80 percent of the U.S. population can be reached within two days or less. It is the Northeast’s interstate hub — the place where Interstates 80, 81, 84, and 476 meet, accessing 80 million consumers within an overnight drive.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is served by American, Delta, and United Airlines, with daily direct flights to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia.
Carl Beardsley, executive director at the airport, said additional flights would be added if Amazon would locate to the region.
• Productivity — The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metropolitan area alone represents $23 billion in annual economic output.
