By now, I am sure everyone has heard about Amazon’s new search for a second headquarters location, appropriately deemed HQ2. A center, according to the Amazon RFP (Request for Proposal), that would hire as many as fifty thousand (50,000) new full-time employees with $100,000 plus average annual compensation, and over $5 billion in capital expenditures. When Amazon first came out with this public RFP a few weeks back, it certainly sent many communities across the United States into a frenzy. And why not? This would be the biggest economic development project of our era. Once the RFP went public, cities and towns all over the country have been vying for the attention of Amazon. Some have offered to rename their towns to Amazon, while others were shipping cacti as gifts.
Explore HQ2countries
Quietly, however, in the background, we too in Doña Ana County, have been working on a response to the Amazon RFP. A response that wasn’t necessarily loud and quick to get out the gate, but a response we feel is bold and unique, rising to the creative challenge asked for in Amazon’s RFP. The opportunity we have crafted offers Amazon the first of its kind, bi-national, seamless, cross-border campus within the area known as Los Santos, a bi-national community composed of Santa Teresa on the U.S side, and San Jeronimo and San Jose on Mexico’s side of the border.
A cross-border campus is a bold idea, and it is a bi-national solution that truly allows a company like Amazon to tap into the assets of our border region: a 2.7 million population base, 139,000 postsecondary students found across 6 universities, 2 international commercial airports, 3 medical schools, and the bi-national spirit found in one region. A concept first born when the bi-national community was envisioned so many years ago by the Border Industrial Association, this vision was later publicly announced in 2013 as a joint initiative by both the Governors of New Mexico and Chihuahua.
Our participation was part of an overall New Mexico statewide response, carefully crafted, not for the purpose of creating a quick buzz, but designed to methodically walk Amazon through the details of how New Mexico could help them overcome the challenges associated with such an ambitious plan. The Statewide response, in and of itself, is a differentiator in terms of how we communicated with Amazon, simply because so few states are in a position to do so. The infighting between communities within states has already risen its ugly heads. For example, the two Senators of Texas came out endorsing three Texas cities without recognizing many others who felt they had a chance. A single cooperative state response by New Mexico shows our unity of purpose and provides clarity in information, a key element for Amazon’s internal decision makers.
Of course, there will be skeptics that New Mexico, much less Doña Ana County, can compete for such a huge project, but frankly speaking every city that is submitting will have their own nay-sayers as well. Tim Nitti, with the New Mexico Partnership (the economic development marketing arm of the State of New Mexico) eloquently summarizes the monumental challenges any community is facing with this RFP.
“We all know that hiring 50,000 is a monumental task, but there are a few things to keep in mind. First, it’s happening over a very extended timeframe; approximately a couple decades. Second, this decision by Amazon should be all about selecting a place with the necessary attributes to attract talent and grow to meet the needs of HQ2. There aren’t existing labor markets anywhere that are big enough to really satisfy this kind of talent demand without taking this perspective. Not only do we understand this, New Mexico has a track record of facilitating this kind of talent attraction for large, highly-selective employers. Finally, every time somebody in our state voices the opinion that winning this a “long shot” for us, they’re just stating the obvious, while also missing an important point … it’s a long shot for everyone everywhere.”
With this in mind, let me make the case for Doña Ana County, specifically with respect to the unique, bi-national, cross-border campus concept at our port of entry in Santa Teresa (Los Santos region) while simultaneously checking the boxes set forth in Amazon’s RFP.
- A Metro Area with More than One Million People: The Los Santos bi-national community is centrally located in a tri-state, two-nation region, with a nearly 2.7 million population.
- Potential to Attract and Retain Strong Technical Talent: Combined, our region has 6 major universities with over 139,000 postsecondary students. A built-in, growing talent pool already exists. Additionally the quality of life to attract talent in Doña Ana County and Las Cruces is unrivaled with over 300 days of sunshine and outdoor activities that span 12 months a year across two national monuments.
- Proximity to an International Airport: Actually, our bi-national region has two commercial, international airports with 27 non-stop destination routes to major hubs like Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Mexico City.
- Proximity to Major Highways and Population Centers: The bi-national city of Los Santos is directly connected to Interstate 10 via Pete Domenici Highway and to downtown Juarez via the Anapra highway, providing access to major population centers within 30 minutes.
- A Community with a Focus on Sustainability: Southern New Mexico, with its 300 days of sunshine is well suited for utility scale renewable production. The proposed bi-national campus location sits just over a mile from the existing 20 MW NRG solar facility and it offers up an abundance of adjacent land for Amazon to incorporate additional solar into their sustainability efforts. Our region already boasts over 100 MW of solar production and the regional utility provider, El Paso Electric is providing 100% coal-free electrical generation.
- 100-Acre Greenfield Development Opportunity: The 200 acre greenfield development proposed for the Amazon bi-national Amazon campus can only happen because of private sector relationships on both sides of the border that are readily in place to respond quickly to an RFP such as this one. The fact that manufacturing and logistical industries have already flourished in both Santa Teresa and San Jeronimo have already set the stage for supporting infrastructure.
- A Community that thinks Big and Creative when Considering Site Locations: We believe the development of a cross-border, bi-national Amazon campus in Los Santos definitely checks off this box. It is also bold and potentially game changing. It is the only place in the U.S. where a visionary company like Amazon has the opportunity to spur corporate and talent innovation in one bi-national setting, while still adhering to the major requirements of population and infrastructure needs of their RFP.
Is it a long shot? Of course it is. But it will be for every community in the country, both large and small. Larger, densely-developed cities will deal with issues that greenfield developments will not have to deal with and vice versa. The trade-offs will be considered. But because the cross-border Los Santos campus site provides both greenfield development and access to a regional 2.7 million population base with 139,000 postsecondary students, we feel Doña Ana County should not be left out of consideration. It is only here where HQ2 can become HQ2Countries.
We invite you to explore further at www.hq2countries.com
Davin Lopez is the CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance (MVEDA), one of the leading economic development agencies in New Mexico.
