Nassau, Suffolk hope to attract 2nd Amazon HQ, officials say

Long Island government officials and local economic development organizations hope to toss their hats into the ring as Amazon opens its search for a second North American headquarters.

Landing the project, a $5 billion-plus campus that could employ up to 50,000, would be “potentially transformative for any location that they move to,” Joseph J. Kearney, executive director of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, said Thursday.

The IDA, which uses tax-incentive packages to attract businesses, will “make every effort we can to get involved in this process and see what we can do to get them here,” Kearney said. “This is like cities bidding for the Olympics. It’s incredible.”

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, in a statement, said the county “fits all the qualifications” Amazon has laid out. “We are close to New York City, major airports and highways. We’ve been rated the safest suburban county in the country having excellent local colleges and suburban schools.” He said the county “will definitely file a proposal.”

And Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said county officials “are already in the process of identifying an appropriate site for Amazon’s East Coast corporate headquarters and their expected growth.”

In its RFP, or request for proposals, Amazon said it encourages “states, provinces and metro areas to coordinate with relevant jurisdictions to submit one [proposal] for your metropolitan statistical area.”

Amazon said it wants the new headquarters site to have the capacity to expand to 8 million square feet.

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“I’m sure whatever they’d want would be very specific to their use,” said Chuck Tabone, executive vice president and managing director of commercial real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank’s Long Island office. The Island’s limited buildable land does present some challenges in selecting a site, Tabone said, but he didn’t rule out a move here.

“The acreage needed to do this is just significant,” he said. “It’s not an impossibility.”