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<\/a>But the long odds didn\u2019t dissuade the San Diego Region Economic Development Corporation (SDREDC) from trying to draw Amazon\u2019s lucrative \u201cHQ2\u201d to the city, and the process itself revealed some positive news for the future of San Diego\u2019s business climate, and Mission Valley\u2019s in particular.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 7, SDREDC director Mark Cafferty gave a presentation to the Mission Valley Planning Group on the criteria Amazon was looking for in a city, the proposal SDREDC presented to Amazon, and the company\u2019s feedback on what was good and bad in San Diego\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
Cafferty said that although San Diego, and cities in California in general, are not perceived as business-friendly, that is not always the case. And so while enticing Amazon to the Golden State seemed unlikely, it was still a possibility in his mind because of the number of other businesses that are interested in locating here.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a regular basis, the state of California, or the city of San Diego, or the county of San Diego, or the city of Poway or any number of groups may receive information from a business or from a site selector who says, \u2018We\u2019d like to contemplate bringing a business to your region.\u2019 There may be a perception that that doesn\u2019t happen in California because this must be such a hard place to do business, but I can tell you that every day we get an email, a phone call or something about someone interested in knowing more about our San Diego market,\u201d Cafferty said.<\/p>\n
Industries that regularly look at San Diego include bioscience, defense, anything related to the ocean and businesses that rely on proximity to the border with Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if they come in and they\u2019re looking for what is essentially the lowest cost place to do business somewhere in the country, we pretty much know we\u2019re not going to be competitive in that process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
So when Amazon announced its unusually public request for proposals from cities for HQ2 that would bring with it close to 50,000 good paying jobs, there were reasons to not be overly optimistic about San Diego\u2019s chances, but to also be hopeful.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy maybe 9 o\u2019clock that morning, I think I had about 120 different messages that came by way of email, text or phone call asking if it was real and if San Diego was going to respond,\u201d Cafferty said.<\/p>\n
San Diego was one of 248 regions that did respond after many areas were weeded out for not meeting Amazon\u2019s criteria: 500,000 square feet ready to be moved into by 2019, 8 million square feet to grow into by 2027, connection to mass transit and proximity to a major airport and freeways.<\/p>\n
Three areas in San Diego were chosen for the proposal \u2014 Downtown, Chula Vista and Mission Valley. Downtown offered the urban vitality similar to Amazon\u2019s first headquarters in Seattle; Chula Vista offered proximity to the border in case Amazon saw value in expanding the Latin American market; and Mission Valley offered a blank canvas in what was then the Qualcomm Stadium site. Both the SoccerCity and SDSU West proposals would allow for a large company like Amazon to move into the needed office space.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s a spot where if you are looking down at it from 30,000 feet, you could actually see Amazon\u2019s future, you could see it in one place,\u201d Cafferty said, adding that housing, public transportation, and the rest of the criteria are all present at or near the Qualcomm site. \u201cAll those things checked out very strongly for Mission Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other positives for San Diego include a high level of entrepreneurship, a high number of engineering graduates, and some proximity to Hollywood which factors into Amazon\u2019s entertainment division.<\/p>\n
However, when the list of 20 cities still up for consideration was announced on Jan. 20, San Diego did not make the cut \u2014 despite a Jan. 16 article in Forbes citing \u201cFive Reasons Why Amazon Will Choose San Diego For Its HQ2.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had heard all through the process from the day we started two things: The inside narrative was they would not choose a city on the West Coast, because they\u2019re already on the West Coast, and they were looking for geographical diversity,\u201d Cafferty said. \u201cThe other was Amazon wanted to know what incentives it would get from the state. And if you know and understand the state of California well then you know that our governor doesn\u2019t play that game. We tried to make up for that locally as best we could and came up with some creative ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the usual policy, Governor Brown did offer \u201ccover\u201d to cities applying for HQ2 by promising them some incentive could be worked out that fits Amazon, just not a cash guarantee, Cafferty added.<\/p>\n
The good news<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not in the 20 cities, and we kind of knew out of the gate we might not be, but what we were hoping is that Amazon would come back and say, \u2018Here\u2019s what we see as future opportunities in San Diego.\u2019 And they\u2019ve done exactly that,\u201d Cafferty said.<\/p>\n In a follow-up phone call with Amazon representative Holly Sullivan, Cafferty learned what Amazon liked and didn\u2019t like about San Diego. The top positive was that Amazon has had luck in finding talent here, which is why the company plans on growing its engineering efforts in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cShe talked about the Mission Valley site as a location that was really interesting to them,\u201d Cafferty said. \u201cShe talked about two or three other cities that they want to have long-term relationships with, but for certain political reasons that she wouldn\u2019t go into aren\u2019t in their top 20 and she told us that San Diego is one of those cities.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the downsides to San Diego that Amazon mentioned is the lack of what Sullivan described as \u201cworkforce housing,\u201d Cafferty said. Because the jobs that HQ2 would have brought pay in the six-figure range, lots of housing for first-time homebuyers in areas with good schools was found to be lacking in San Diego.<\/p>\n Even though Amazon didn\u2019t chose to build HQ2 in San Diego, Cafferty said it was worth the shot and still beneficial to the region by getting the marketing material ready and circulated in the business world. The work on the Amazon proposal is public so other businesses can now see the region\u2019s demographic information, educational attainment information, land-use information and possible incentive information.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I think Amazon wants to keep the door open here for future opportunities, future growth,\u201d Cafferty said.<\/p>\n Even though the Amazon proposal will get the word out about opportunities in San Diego, the focus for Cafferty and the SDREDC will now be helping to grow the companies that are already here.<\/p>\n \u201cAmazon\u2019s come and gone. The real economic development work in this region that we should be thinking about is, \u2018Who\u2019s here already growing?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when we really look around, there\u2019s probably two or three strategic sites in this region where if someone was asking us, \u2018Where is the future of San Diego\u2019s economy?\u2019 For us, Mission Valley is really the heart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n