September 25, 2017
Philadelphia, Camden and the state of Delaware are all making separate bids to be considered the destination for the second Amazon headquarters, which has already created a great amount of chaos among cities nationwide since the call for proposals was announced a mere three weeks ago.
And now, along with Camden and Delaware, yet another nearby region is making its own proposal to Amazon. This one is located less than 20 miles from Center City: Bensalem Township in Bucks County.
“Certainly I think anyone who comes and looks at the Bensalem site, they understand it has everything Amazon needs,” Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo said.
The township is particularly pushing the Riverfront Revitalization District, which has room for Amazon’s requested 100 acres of undeveloped site.
DiGirolamo has already written a pre-proposal letter to Amazon also highlighting the township’s proximity to major roadways, two SEPTA lines and three airports.
As reported last week, Amazon’s call for potential HQ sites specifically asks that greater metro regions submit their bids in one single proposal, meaning that Camden and Delaware’s proposal would ideally be part of Philadelphia’s, according to Amazon guidelines.
Though the city of Philadelphia had previously attempted to get Camden and Delaware to enter one joint proposal, DiGirolamo said he had not heard from any city officials, from Philadelphia or greater Bucks County, about any kind of partnership.
“We did this on our own,” he said. “We found it advertised on RFP and we decided why not? We meet every one of the specifications. It would be silly if I didn’t do my due diligence on behalf of Bensalem.”
Nonetheless, DiGirolamo said that if Greater Philadelphia were selected among the finalists for Amazon’s headquarters search, Bensalem could still be considered as a headquarters location.
“We’d be in that mix, I think,” DiGirolamo said. “I hope we would be, if it was the Philadelphia region.”
