St. Louis and Kansas City submitted independent proposals for a second Amazon headquarters and now Missouri has submitted its own bid.
On Thursday, Governor Eric Greitens announced the State's plan to bring the company to Missouri, and it features cities on either side of the state. The bid to Amazon hopes to create an ‘innovative corridor’ to link the cities that are nearly 250 miles apart. The proposal includes both cities by connecting them with the 240-mile Hyperloop One.
The plan calls for a large Amazon headquarters that would span from St. Louis to Columbia to Kansas City using the Hyperloop One to get people in from these areas, whether the headquarters is in St. Louis or Kansas City.
Letter from Gov. Greitens to Amazon
Dear Mr. Bezos:
My entire team and I are excited to welcome you and to work with you to bring HQ2 to Missouri and the Heartland of America!
From our earliest days, Missouri has been the home of explorers, inventors, and innovators who are turning big, bold ideas into reality. We still are today. Missouri remains a home for doers – people who deliver results.
I will work personally with you, our General Assembly, and our business and civic leaders across the state to welcome Amazon’s HQ2 to Missouri. My team fully and equally support the two proposals submitted by our major metropolitan areas, Kansas City and St. Louis. We are proud of both.
While each proposal stands on its own, I also encourage you to envision what Amazon could achieve by partnering with us to unleash the combined strength of the entire State of Missouri.
Now, it’s time for you to open the next chapter in Amazon’s amazing history. Join us in making Amazon stronger and in transforming the Heartland of America, together, right here in Missouri.
RELATED: Can St. Louis deliver to Amazon?
In September, Amazon announced it is in the market for a second headquarters. ‘HQ2’ is expected to house up to 50,000 employees and cost approximately $5 billion to build and operate.
Thursday is the deadline for submitting bids for Amazon.
The Hyperloop One would get people from St. Louis to Kansas City in about 25 minutes.
The 13-page proposal says Missouri is partnering with Hyperloop One to develop a project for a generation that would bring communities and cultures together.
“A Hyperloop transportation system between St. Louis and Kansas City would invigorate the region and connect Amazon to a world-class multimodal transportation network and a workforce of nearly three million people. Access to such an ultra-high-speed transportation system would help accelerate Amazon’s growth and support further expansions long into the future. And it would inspire others.”
How does it work?
Passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod then lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag, according to Hyperloop One.
St. Louis' plan
Dear Amazon,
Meet Us In St. Louis.
That is the beginning of the pitch to bring Amazon's second headquarters to our region. But, the details are still a mystery.
“There's always things like tax incentives and nobody, outside of a very close circle, knows what's going to be offered. Quite frankly, I don't think Amazon wants people to know what's going to be offered,” said Aaron Perlut, who works for the marketing and public relations firm Elasticity. He helped develop the social media push to attract Amazon.
The proposed site for Amazon's second headquarters would be along the north riverfront, where there is plenty of space to develop. We don't know what kind of infrastructure plans are in the proposal, but we do know the river, St. Louis Lambert international airport and the Metrolink were highlighted.
“Our learning institutions graduate 44,000 people each year about 11,000 thousand of those graduates work in areas and are educated in areas that are in the guidelines of what Amazon needs,” said St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger.
Stenger could not reveal what the headquarters would look like, or if the proposal included new infrastructure to accommodate Amazon.
“It's a unique space. We're talking about both sides of the river,” Stenger said.
