Regional effort holds promise

It’s been sort of fun watching communities across the country—including Indianapolis—get fired up about the idea of landing what Amazon Inc. is calling HQ2, essentially a second North American headquarters for its burgeoning operations.

The company sent most major metros into a tizzy with its open call for proposals to host the tech and retail giant, which is promising $5 billion in construction and as many as 50,000 jobs that pay an average of $100,000 per year.

Just about every news organization is assessing their communities’ chances of landing the transformational campus (see our evaluations of Indy at IBJ.com), picking apart the local strengths and weaknesses, as if Amazon plans to throw some data points into a computer and let an algorithm select the winner (OK, maybe that’s exactly what will happen).

The competition could have brought out the worst in communities that want to vie for HQ2. But so far, it seems to have brought out the best. A sense of community pride has been rolling across central Indiana and much of the country as each locale has started building its case.

Of course, the Indiana Economic Development Corp.—our state’s job-creation arm—has been completely tight-lipped about whether it will jump into the race. That’s been the IEDC modus operandi for years.

But just a day after Amazon’s announcements, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness appeared together to announce a regional effort to lure Amazon. There are no details yet, but the pair likened the effort to trying to land a Super Bowl or other major sports event, something we’re pretty good at.

And while national speculation has focused on other cities—think Denver, Austin and Toronto—the regional nature of the effort here in Indiana should be a positive, not just in trying to attract Amazon but in thinking more generally about growing jobs, population and incomes for the entire metro area.

Those who are skeptical of central Indiana’s odds of capturing the attention of Amazon make good points. The company needs a highly skilled labor force and Indiana’s college attainment rate should be higher. Amazon said specifically that good mass transit is important—and that’s an area where Indianapolis is trying to improve but still falls considerably short of other major cities. And there are questions about whether the state’s conservative political culture is a good match for Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and CEO, who has become increasingly critical of the Trump administration.

But the beauty of the partnership between Indianapolis and its suburbs is that it gives officials a chance to jointly solve the area’s problems and become stronger together—something that hasn’t happened often enough here.

We have high hopes for the partnership—which we’re confident will grow into a larger effort with more regional officials—not only as an effort to attract Amazon, but for what it means for the area’s future as a whole.

Mayors, don’t let us down.•

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