Fort Worth brings in the mega-projects to lure Amazon's HQ2

October 5,2017

By Candace Carlisle

Fort Worth is expected to put a handful of mega-developments on the table for consideration when it comes to landing Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) second North American headquarters.

That being said, Fort Worth officials are making sure they identify potential sites for Amazon's HQ2 that are located in an urban setting, Robert Sturns, Fort Worth's director of economic development, told the Dallas Business Journal.

"They have clearly outlined a desire to be in a fairly urban setting, so we are looking at any opportunity to try and facilitate some development," Sturns said. "Downtown could make a compelling option and we have different ways to configure some space to meet their needs."

Fort Worth plans to pitch a handful of potential development sites to the Dallas Regional Chamber, which is collecting each North Texas city's bid to put into a larger, regional pitch. The chamber is expected to submit the proposal by Oct. 19.

Other Fort Worth sites include the $6 billion Walsh development, which sits 12 minutes from Fort Worth's urban core, development sites in Ross Perot Jr.'s AllianceTexas, Panther Island adjacent to the Trinity River, and sites along the Chisholm Trail Parkway.

"This is a fairly wide assessment and we don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into one specific site," Sturns said. "We are trying to be as flexible as we can be and make this a regional effort."

Dallas-Fort Worth has a great chance of getting shortlisted for Amazon's second North American headquarters, which could employ up to 50,000 workers, he added.

And if North Texas gets to that point, Sturns said the chamber will help identity some specific areas of interest.

For Walsh developer, Dallas-based Republic Property Group Co-CEO Tony Ruggeri the $6 billion master-planned community has a lot of the "raw materials that Amazon is looking for in a location."

Those raw materials in Walsh — from infrastructure wired for fiber optic network to a corporate campus site in close proximity to major freeways to a generational piece of land — could be attractive to a major corporate tenant, such as Amazon, he said.

"No matter where Amazon goes in North Texas, if they come to North Texas — everyone wins," Ruggeri said, adding this was the first time he has pitched to a company the size of Amazon for a corporate campus.

"There are a lot of good sites out there and a lot of good opportunities," he added. "Hopefully we can attract Amazon with one of them."