CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland offered Amazon three dozen different enticements in its attempt to land HQ2. All 36 of these benefits are listed in the unredacted proposal that the city was forced to release last week.
Representing a mix of both existing and promised assets, the city’s generosity has some questioning the wisdom of offering such hefty incentives. We broke these items out of the original document for easier perusal.
1. 4.7 million square feet of available office space
2. 3.85 million square feet of new build-to-suit construction
3. Core of site integrates with Public Square, Warehouse and Gateway districts
4. Core site is near Terminal Tower, transit system and all major bus routes
5. Downtown Cleveland microgrid – a reliable continuous electric power and internet service
6. One of the fastest, most connected fiber networks up to 1-gigabit per second
7. Expanded site near Euclid Healthline bus service
8. Expand into iconic waterfront buildings that qualify for historic tax credits
9. Amazon Villages would be new waterfront work/live/play communities for Amazon employees
10. Additional growth opportunities in mouth of Cuyahoga River
11. Jobs Ohio help grant to help recruit national talent
12. Jobs Ohio grants to help speed products to market
13. Jobs Ohio upfront capital for building, land, infrastructure
14. Jobs Ohio relocation grants to help Amazon employees move to Cleveland
15. Jobs Ohio R&D grant
16. Jobs Ohio revitalization grant
17. Ohio job creation tax credits
18. Ohio Road work development grants
19. ODOT funding
20. City of Cleveland 50 percent wage tax credit for 15 years
21. City of Cleveland property tax rebate for non-school funding for 30 years
22. Cuyahoga County 100 percent sales tax increment for 20 years
23. Cuyahoga County capital to build or renovate headquarters
24. Cuyahoga County relocation offsets for employees
25. Cuyahoga County dedicated free trolley service and water taxi service
26. Cuyahoga County airfare subsidies for travel from Seattle to Cleveland
27. Attractive cost of living and cost of doing business
28. Cleveland State University – 10 acres of land for the construction of Amazon University to train workers
29. Unparalleled health care and medical institutions
30. Unrivaled development flexibility
31. Mixed-use waterfront development
32. Highly diverse educated workforce
33. Short metro area commute time
34. Cultural assets like Playhouse Square and Cleveland State’s new film school
35. Beaches
36. Metroparks Emerald Necklace park system
Here is the breakdown of the $3.5 billion incentive package
- $1.55 billion from State of Ohio and Jobs Ohio
- $803 million Direct incentives from City of Cleveland
- $646 million Direct incentives from Cuyahoga County
- $326 million from other local governments
- $200 million additional from Cuyahoga County for microgrid
RELATED: Cleveland offered Amazon its own electric grid, waterfront property
