Could Amazon’s next HQ be in New Brunswick?
No, seriously, it’s possible
On Thursday Sept. 7th Amazon Inc. announced that it would be soliciting proposals for a new campus location, to expand from its current HQ in Seattle, WA.
That city is pretty crowded for other tech and business giants like Amazon’s competitor, Microsoft and Starbucks. Granted, all three have different business models but are still huge. So Amazon sent out hundreds of RFPs (Request for Proposal) to cities and city planning agencies all around the country. These requests are essentially solicitations for those cities to put together proposals that invite and provide justification for Amazon to then bid for setting up a huge headquarters in that city.
So what the hell does this have to do with Rutgers? Well, the New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) had received one of these RFPs and is most likely working on a proposal to have Amazon come to New Brunswick.
The requirements as noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article include stuff like: Proximity to mass transit and a major airport and highway, well educated workforce (preferably near a university), working space and city size walkability. Many of these criteria New Brunswick checks out on pretty well, not to mention that there are THOUSANDS of engineers, business, design and humanities students coming out of, or about to graduate, the university that could use a job.
But what could happen? And what even does Amazon have to offer to the New Brunswick and Rutgers community?
– THOUSANDS of jobs and internship opportunities for students and the residents of New Brunswick
– Around $5 Billion invested in infrastructure and community improvement
– A total of around 50,000 well to high paying jobs
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos envisions that whichever city becomes the home of the new headquarters will be similar and equal to the Seattle campus and grow rapidly to expand with Amazon’s own recent growth as it expands more and builds new warehouses across the USA to handle all of its orders.
With Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc. the options for the company are becoming almost limitless… and the next option should definitely be no other than our own Hub City.
Amazon hopes to announce a decision by next year but the time is now to try and make things happen in our favor.