Editorial: Look to future, Amazon; bring HQ2 to Brick City

North Jersey Editorial Board | North Jersey Record

Show Caption Hide Caption Amazon's HQ2 list down to 20 cities Amazon cut the list of cities it is considering for its second headquarters to 20, including long shot Newark, but D.C. area seems to have edge

Reportedly, Northern Virginia is the odds-on front-runner to land the second Amazon headquarters in the eastern United States, better known as HQ2.

We say, hold on a second, Mr. Bezos. Take a new glance Newark’s way.

New Jersey’s largest city is a comer. Sure, it has its scars; it also has a great heart. Moving your East Coast headquarters there makes all kinds of good sense.

Just as Paterson became an unlikely front-runner for a national park a few years back, and then became that rare urban gem in the U.S. National Park Service network, Newark holds the same potential, and more, and has attributes other contenders in the HQ2 race can hope to replicate.

Sure, somewhere in Northern Virginia – Crystal City, is the current site of choice, according to experts quoted in The New York Times – would be the safe pick, an almost throwback pick in our eyes.

No offense, but Crystal City seems like yesterday; Newark feels like tomorrow.

Picking Crystal City would be a hand wave, a clearing of the throat; picking Newark would be making a statement, not unlike the one Nike made in choosing Colin Kaepernick to be its face of a new marketing push.

As Staff Writer Joan Verdon reported, Newark still has all the assets that landed it on the 20-city finalist list in the first place – its proximity to Manhattan, at a lower cost; its location in a transportation hub, with an international airport, a major port, trains, subways and highways nearby; its advanced fiber-optic network; and colleges in New York and New Jersey that can supply a ready talent pool — are still in place.

It also has an attribute that can’t be measured in dollars and cents, or cost benefit analytics – a chance to lift a city that has taken its punches and bounced back up.

“There’s a lot of new momentum working in Newark’s favor, and it has to do with this idea of social impact,” said John Boyd Jr., a principal in The Boyd Company, Inc, a Princeton-based corporate site selection consulting firm.

In Newark’s original pitch, it noted that the city “provides Amazon with an opportunity to take a leading role in the ongoing renaissance of a great American city.”

Amazon has pledged to bring 50,000 jobs and at least $5 billion in capital spending and investment to the winning city. Meantime, Newark and New Jersey have offered $7 billion in tax breaks to entice the online retail giant.

Amazon’s final decision is expected by the end of the year. The fact that Newark is still in the conversation is something, but it’s not enough; there are no consolation prizes here.

Newark, when all is said and done, represents the unique choice, the out-of-the-box. In our view, it’s the only choice.