Toronto’s failed bid to land Amazon’s second HQ is looking smarter after New York loses campus: observers

TheStar.com
Feb. 15, 2019
David Rider

Toronto’s failed bid to land Amazon’s second headquarters is looking smarter after New York won the contest only to lose a planned campus amid public backlash over big incentives, observers say.

Those observers, including Mayor John Tory and Toby Lennox, chief executive of the agency that quarterbacked the pitch, say Toronto will not alter its approach if Amazon re-opens its Olympic bid-style contest pitting North American cities against each other to woo the retail giant.
Amazon’s surprise announcement that it was canceling its planned expansion to a new corporate campus in New York was greeted with celebration by local activists and politicians who had opposed the deal.

“Our bid still stands, and we would welcome discussions with Amazon about expanding their presence across the Toronto Region to leverage our talent, our competitive business costs, and our unmatched quality of life,” Lennox, of federal agency Toronto Global, said Thursday after Amazon binned plans to build a $2.5-billion campus in Queens leading as many as 25,000 jobs.

New York activists and some politicians had blasted incentives for Amazon of up to $2.8 billion U.S.

Last November, Toronto learned it lost its bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters to New York and a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., while the company allocated a smaller office to Nashville.

Founded by Jeff Bezos, Amazon announced its change of heart in a blog post , blaming some New York politicians who “made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward.

“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.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile New York Democrat Congress member, tweeted: “Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world.”

U of T urbanist Richard Florida said the Toronto region bid stood as “the exemplar” among 20 shortlisted cities because it emphasized the city’s strengths without dangling billions of dollars in special incentives.

Florida, director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute, had predicted a backlash from New York activists.

Company and government officials, he said, failed to try to convince New Yorkers the massive complex would be good for them and justified massive public subsidy.

“Companies like Amazon need a real lesson in how to deal with, and manage, and build communities,” Florida said. “I’m astounded that a trillion-dollar company doesn’t know how to do that, that they’re so crass in dealing with people’s neighbourhoods and homes, that they can take a lot out and give very little back.

“What’s happened today is terrible for Amazon and terrible for New York and I would like to see mayors stand together and say ‘Amazon, you’re not going to treat us badly, go back to the table in New York and figure this out.’ ”

Florida predicted activists around Washington, D.C., will now start questioning expansion plans there, which involved up to $750 million U.S. in cash incentives if the company creates 37,850 high-paying jobs at the new Northern Virginia headquarters.

Tory noted in a statement the local pitch “did not offer any incentives to entice Amazon to choose the Toronto Region and competed solely on the unique strengths of our region; we have the talent, the quality of life, the vibrancy and the economic strength.”

The mayor repeated that, since news broke earlier this week Amazon was rethinking New York plans, he let Amazon officials know “our city remains a great place to grow and to invest.” The company announced in December plans to add 600 jobs to a Toronto workforce of 800.

Cherise Burda, executive director of the Ryerson City Building Institute, said Amazon’s competition backfired, in part, because New York City is already, as Toronto is, booming economically.

“The challenges we face from all that growth are things like affordable housing and transit,” Burda said. “We need the types of corporate head offices that will help us solve these challenges and contribute to the common good, rather than take precious tax dollars that we need to invest in all of our infrastructure and social services.”