By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Local economic developers believe Bloomington-Normal can help make a more attractive offer for Chicago’s bid to land Amazon.
The Seattle-based online shopping giant is looking for a bring as many as 50,000 jobs at a city that could serve as its second headquarters. CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council Kyle Ham, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, the Twin Cities has office space and a strong workforce nearby.
“An hour-and-a-half train ride down here, we have talented people here, we have a university, home of State Farm,” Ham said. “Maybe part of that 50,000 could bring 500 to 1,000 to be in a back office here.
“That’s what a lot of companies do, they will have a back offices in other places, so maybe you have an HR division or an IT division that’s located here and they can access Chicago. We certainly want to make sure we are in the mix of that because that’s a lot of jobs.”
The company has said it’s looking for areas with more than 1 million people. Ham said he suspects state economic incentives would likely be part of any deal.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he’s personally talked with Amazon executives about expanding into Illinois.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
