Chicago and Illinois officials reached out to Amazon on Friday in a renewed effort to win a 25,000-job campus that would serve as part of the tech behemoth’s second headquarters.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called Amazon and made “a full-throated pitch” this morning, according to a source from his administration. A City Hall source confirmed the city reached out as well.
The move followed a report from The Washington Post, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns, that opposition from local politicians has caused Amazon to reconsider its plan to bring the campus to New York City.
Amazon has not yet leased or purchased office space for the campus in New York City, and final approval of state incentives is not expected until 2020, the Post reported.
The e-commerce giant announced in November that it would split its second headquarters between New York’s Long Island City neighborhood and Northern Virginia. The announcement ended a yearlong, high-stakes competition to win thousands of high-paying tech jobs, in which Chicago was among 20 finalists.
Amazon also said it would build a new operations center in Nashville, Tenn., that will create more than 5,000 jobs.
Tennessee and Virginia officials have both welcomed Amazon, approving incentive packages and infrastructure improvement projects.
Jennifer Martinez, a spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in an emailed statement that the city is constantly working to recruit companies and jobs to Chicago.
“Our tech sector is growing quickly,” she said in the statement. “Chicago has a lot to offer, and Mayor (Rahm) Emanuel will continue his efforts to recruit companies to Chicago until his last day on the Fifth Floor in City Hall, and probably for long after that.”
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