Steve Burns
WMAL.com
LARGO – (WMAL) Prince George’s County is joining the District, Montgomery, Arlington, and Loudoun Counties in submitting potential sites to house Amazon’s coveted second headquarters, and the 50,000 jobs expected to come with it.
County Executive Rushern Baker on Tuesday announced sites in College Park, Greenbelt, and New Carrollton will be evaluated for the project. All three enjoy a Metro station and proximity to colleges and universities, Baker said, and all three are seeing development that will look attractive to Amazon’s future employees.
“They’re not just great sites to get back and forth on the Metro, but they’re also great sites for the type of employees that will be attracted to Amazon,” Baker told WMAL. “To, work, and to have entertainment, with restaurants and everything else.”
The Greenbelt site is the same site proposed for the new headquarters of the FBI, before the Trump administration put the search on hold. baker said he would prefer to win both, but the Greenbelt site does enjoy the advantage of being studied for a similar project already.
“It not only puts us on the map as being competitive in the Washington region, it will also put us on the map being competitive around the world,” Baker said.
Baker, who is running for Governor, also had some words of criticism for current Governor Larry Hogan, who endorsed a site in Baltimore last week.
“We certainly believe the best option from the state perspective is to support all sites that have a chance of winning,” Baker said. “I think that should be the state’s perspective – not to pick one site over the other, but really to let each site rise on its own and at the end of the day, say ‘you know what, what’s important is Maryland win this.’”
In a statement, Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said the Governor continues to advocate for the Baltimore site, but “he would welcome Amazon to any location within Maryland, and the state and the Department of Commerce will work hard on behalf of any jurisdiction submitting a proposal.”
Copyright 2017, WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Prince George’s County)
