Hudson Valley communities hope to attract Amazon’s second HQ

<p>It&rsquo;s deadline day for cities and towns interested in having their area be home to e-commerce giant Amazon&rsquo;s second headquarters.&nbsp;</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 19, 2017, 9:06 PM

Updated 2,546 days ago

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It’s deadline day for cities and towns interested in having their area be home to e-commerce giant Amazon’s second headquarters.
Amazon has sparked a bidding war after announcing in September that it plans to invest more than $5 billion in new corporate accommodations. New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson says his downtown is "shovel ready" to welcome the multibillion-dollar facility.
"We're a longshot, like every other specific community, but there is certainly no downside in applying,” he says.
The city is offering to rename the current unused 78-acre former U.S. Army base known as "David's Island” to "Amazon Island."
"We have to be sure that any development benefits our residents and taxpayers, and that's true of Amazon or any other group that wants to invest in New Rochelle,” Bramson says.
The Town of Ramapo is also hoping to attract Amazon to its community. Officials say a nearly 300-acre site, once home to Novartis Pharmaceuticals, would be an ideal corporate headquarters.
"I have a lot of faith in our economic development team, from county to state, that it will be something that's fair to the people," says Town of Ramapo Supervisor Yitzchok Ullman.
Amazon is expected to announce the city with the winning bid early next year. According to Moody's, Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia are the front-runners.