(INDIANAPOLIS) – Indy didn’t get Amazon’s new headquarters, but the officials who assembled the bid maintain the effort will lead to jobs in other ways.
City and state officials argue making Amazon’s 20-city will draw attention to Indianapolis. And Governor Holcomb notes Indy’s bid was a partnership of Indy and Fishers — and other Indiana bids which didn’t make the final 20 were urban-suburban partnerships as well. He says the effort which went into thinking regionally finding ways to collaborate is work that will already be done when the next big project comes along.
Indy Chamber president Michael Huber says two glossy videos showcasing Indianapolis will be ready to go for future projects. And he says while Amazon is unique, many of its needs will be increasingly common. He says the city learned just how critical it is to be able to attract workers with tech skills, and learned it’s on the right track in trying to beef up its mass transit system.
And Huber says other companies will follow Amazon in recruiting workers from around the globe. He says Indy has to get over what he calls natural Hoosier humility and be willing to trumpet its quality-of-life advantages.
Huber says the Amazon bid was a chance for the city to flex its economic-development muscles and get a real-world test of how it stacks up against other cities.
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