Pittsburgh touts 2 advantages better than subsidies in quest for Amazon HQ

Pittsburgh's two advantages over other cities in the national bidding war to become the home of Amazon's second headquarters is the city's affordable cost of living and large number of talented university graduates, officials said Thursday.

Mayor Bill Peduto, flanked by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Stefani Pashman, who heads the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said those factors outweigh any subsidy or incentive the region might offer Seattle-based Amazon.

Peduto said that over 20 years Amazon would realize savings here in the cost of health care, energy, property, and labor costs.

That would eclipse any direct government subsidy.

“There is no other city in this country that has the talent that Amazon is looking for with the cost of living we have,” Peduto told reporters in his conference room. “We will not be the greatest proposal for financial incentive, but we can more than make it up in the cost of living and the quality of talent.”

Citing confidentiality agreements, officials would not offer specifics contained in Pittsburgh's two-inch-thick package of books and files sent to Amazon.

But they cited examples such as the former LTV steel mill property in Hazelwood and the Westinghouse Research and Development office complex in Churchill as move-in-ready sites where Amazon could build what has been dubbed HQ2.

Fitzgerald admitted Pittsburgh's application submitted to Amazon on Wednesday contains financial incentives offered by the city, county and Pennsylvania government.

“We're not going to give away those details,” he said. “The one thing I think we can say is the incentives are based on deliverables, meaning not just giving out tax incentives and hoping that the jobs come here, but after the jobs and the economic impact is delivered to this region, then the tax credits or tax breaks ... will occur after that.”

Peduto added that incentives would be offered in a way that also benefits the city, such as improvements in infrastructure, workforce training and better housing.

“The idea is that we don't just offer a grant or a tax incentive to Amazon,” he said. “There's a component of it that would help us so that we do have a workforce that would be ready for these jobs, that we are investing in affordable housing and quality of life for this region.”

The officials said Amazon has offered no time frame for when it might make a decision.

Peduto urged residents of the Pittsburgh region to join a social media lobbying effort for Amazon's headquarters through the website hqpittsburgh.com .

“(This) is the opportunity for all Pittsburghers to say why you're here,” he said. “Why are you in Pittsburgh. Why is your company in Pittsburgh and why should Amazon be in Pittsburgh as well.”

Pashman described a massive effort to create the application. It included government staff, corporations and universities.

“We immediately called into action our key partners in the foundation community, the university community, our partners in the 10-county region and of course our corporate leadership along with our civic leaders and our government leaders to make sure that we can put forward our best foot,” she said.

Fitzgerald estimated it would cost around $400,000, including staff time and money paid to consultants, for the application. He said contributors including Highmark, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PNC Bank and foundations provided a large percentage of the money.

He compared the effort to studying for a test and knowing you aced it.

“I know that the proposal that we put together we did very well,” he said. “We're going to get an A. It's because of all of the great things that we have in this region that we can sell to Amazon.”

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer.