Newark dangles $7 billion in front of Amazon in bid for HQ

Newark, New Jersey is determined to get Amazon's new headquarters. So determined, it's willing to offer up $7 billion in tax incentives.

Dozens of cities are vying for the economic benefits that would come with playing host to Amazon's second U.S. headquarters, adding to its original HQ in Seattle. Newark's offer is one of the most extreme—and serious. Amazon set Thursday as the deadline for cities to make their final offers.

The city, which has struggled over the past 50 years but is also home to a growing downtown and business district, would offer $7 billion in combined state and city tax incentives. Newark is New Jersey's official pick for its bid, with the support of Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

"We have exactly what Amazon is looking for, in terms of expanding their company in a city that will help them grow and where it would have real social impact,” Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka told the New York Times. “Newark is an opportunity to make a real statement, about what they’re trying to accomplish in the United States in the age of Trump.”

Newark is close enough to New York—18 minutes by train to midtown, the city boasts—but much less expensive. New York fulfills most of Amazon's demands, including a metro area of at least a million people, proximity to an international airport, and access to mass transit, experts told the New York Times. Newark has basically the same stuff, but stands to benefit more immediately from Amazon's $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs.

Its $7 billion in incentives is made up of $5 billion in state tax breaks over the next 10 years after Amazon creates its promised 50,000 jobs; a property-tax abatement worth $1 billion offered by the city; and $1 billion by waiving the city's local wage tax for Amazon's new Newark employees.

Other cities have pled their cases with gimmicks, like a gift of a giant cactus sent to Seattle from Tuscon, Arizona and installations of giant Amazon boxes throughout Birmingham, Alabama. Newark hasn't tried any of those techniques—just offered up its proximity to New York, potential for economic development, and humongous tax breaks.

The city already has a connection to Amazon. Newark is home to Audible, the audiobooks platform owned by Amazon. About 1,000 Amazon employees work at Audible's headquarters in Newark.

That doesn't mean too much as Amazon decides which part of the country it will reshape next, but Newark is dead set on giving Amazon's bidding round its best shot.