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'Quality Of Life' Used To Lure Amazon HQ2 To Colorado

By Jeff Todd

DENVER (CBS4) - After a feverish month, the Colorado bid for Amazon's HQ2 is in.

"We chose one voice that represents the entire state across multiple urban and suburban communities," said Sam Bailey, the Vice President of Economic Development for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation.

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30 sites and 400 pages of documents were sent to the Denver Metro EDC, which worked with the Colorado Office of Economic Development in the Governor's office, to whittle down the choices.

The final bid lays out eight sites as an option for Amazon's next headquarters. The bid also has a few sites for data centers or other potential sites Amazon may need.

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"Quality of life cannot be competed against here in Colorado," Bailey said, "Our pillars we focused on, the place we've invested in and built for the future, the talent that is growing and relocating here, the global accessibility globally and virtually, and the support businesses get when they come here."

The hope is Amazon will see past dollars and cents to pick a site around Denver.

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While others have offered 10-figure tax breaks, Colorado incentives are dependent on where the site is, and how many jobs are created.

"We don't lead with incentives, we've seen through some states that have come out in the past couple days that they're leading strongly with upfront incentives. We're leading with upfront talent," said Bailey.

The HQ2 request for proposal said Amazon could build up to 50,000 jobs over 10 to 15 years.

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Colorado's bid believes many of those potential employees are already in or around Denver and could handle any more potential growth.

Governor John Hickenlooper said in a press release, "What better place for a second home than Colorado for Amazon? I'm confident our proposal will be as competitive as any and will build on the current investment Amazon has made in our state. We believe that Colorado, and this region, can deliver more for Amazon than any other in the country. Our economy, workforce readiness initiatives, educational institutions and quality of life will all be stronger and more vibrant with a large Amazon presence in Colorado."

RELATED: Site Of Amazon's HQ2 Has Much To Learn From Seattle

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.

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