Will this video persuade Amazon to build HQ2 in North Texas?

October 19,2017

By Gordon Dickson and Sandra Baker

Touting the region’s diversity, pro-business climate, access to research facilities and even the prevalence of delicious tacos, leaders from the Fort Worth and Dallas chambers of commerce unveiled a video aimed at persuading Amazon to build its second headquarters in North Texas.

“I love DFW because it’s vibrant,” Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price says in a brief appearance at the beginning of the video. “If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere in the world.”

The video, which is less than two minutes long, features Metroplex residents from diverse backgrounds briefly stating what they like about the region, and holding up signs with keywords such as “&DIVERSITY,” “&PROGRESSIVE” and “&TACOS.”

Several Tarrant County landmarks are featured including Fort Worth’s West Seventh Street bridge, the Rahr & Sons brewery, and Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

At a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday, where the video was shown to rousing applause, Brandom Gengelbach, the chamber’s executive vice president of economic development, said it does a great job of showing the area’s diversity.

The region’s goal, he said, is to make it to the next phase of the competition for Seattle-based Amazon, which has drawn bids from across North America for a complex that could eventually employ up to 50,000 people.

“It’s been a fun time,” Gengelbach said. “It’s been great to work with the region, to work with all the different communities, and to be able to promote Fort Worth and the region as a whole. You can see from the video what we’re trying to convey is we have something for everyone here.”

Gengelbach said DFW’s bid included every potential site where Amazon could locate, though he did not say how many there were. The bid was submitted electronically, with a hard copy sent to Seattle.

In a joint news release, officials said they presented Amazon with numerous pieces of real estate that could be suitable options for a new headquarters. The precise locations haven’t been publicly unveiled, although officials in various cities have said the proposed locations include Fort Worth’s Panther Island, Arlington’s Globe Life Park, Grapevine’s undeveloped land on the north end of DFW Airport and locations in Dallas, Frisco and Irving.

The submission also includes a “secure and custom-built, map-based website for Amazon only, that contains both the regional response and individual city responses.”

“I’m confident we’ve shared with Amazon all the things that have made this region a great place for corporate headquarters location,” Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber, said in the news release.