Camden County Submits Bid For Amazon HQ

The bid is in. A few days after reiterating its commitment to bringing Amazon’s second headquarters to Camden, county officials, the City of Camden and Coopers Ferry Partnership, submitted a proposal to bring the retail giant’s second North American headquarters to South Jersey.

They submitted a 197-page document that details why Camden is the most fertile ground for the tech giant to land, officials said on Thursday.

“We have done our homework and believe our team has put together the best submission in the nation to make Camden an Amazon town,” Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said. “As I said in September when we started this journey, I believe the city brings a comprehensive variety of tangible and intangible assets and amenities that many localities cannot compete with. Furthermore, our infrastructure and geography are second to none.”

Amazon has grown from a website that focused on selling books into a global e-commerce leader for the largest variety of products in the world.

Earlier this month, the Seattle-based company announced that it will invest $5 billion to build a second headquarters that will be "a full equal" to its Seattle campus. The headquarters will be somewhere in North America and will create 50,000 high-paying jobs.

Watch: Winning Amazon's HQ2 Sweepstakes Has Pros And Cons

The county views the 8 million square feet of proposed office space as “transformative for any landscape.” The thousands of new employees working within those offices will bring benefits the local economy of whatever community Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos decides to plan his new headquarters, officials said.

But earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appeared appeared at a press conference to say that the state will be throwing its power behind a bid to bring Amazon’s second corporate office – known as HQ2 – to Newark.

Cappelli responded by saying the county would move forward with its proposal, and he knows the state will support the county’s bid should it move forward and Newark doesn’t.

“I am confident and believe this is the right time for Camden,” Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd said. “This is yet another opportunity for the city to build upon its renowned industrial past and rich legacy of innovation. I believe the city has put together a very competitive application. Camden has done a good job of attracting more than $2 billion in investment and other forward thinking industry leaders like Subaru, Holtec and American Water, among others. We see Amazon as an excellent fit. Simply put, Camden’s location is second to none in terms of distribution and logistics. Our city and region has the assets needed to support Amazon and it would be a tremendous boost for Camden, the state and the entire regional economy."

The proposal, including all project renderings, can be seen at the county website.

Patch file photo