Finding Prince George’s
County Council Member At-Large Mel Franklin Urges Amazon to Take a "Fresh Look" at Prince George's County After Company Cancels New York City Location
Councilman Calls County the Best Place for Investment in the DC Region
By Mel Franklin
This week, multinational technology corporation, Amazon Inc. ("Amazon"), announced that it is cancelling its planned 2nd headquarters location ("HQ2") in New York City's Long Island City, Queens neighborhood due to local opposition. Amazon had planned to locate 25,000 jobs at HQ2 in Long Island City. While Amazon also announced that it is not pursuing another location "at this time," Prince George's County economic development officials have contacted Amazon to reiterate the County's continued interest in the company and the availability of multiple county sites, including locations in the vicinity of Maryland's flagship university, the University of Maryland-College Park.
Mel Franklin
Prince George's County is the best place to invest in, in the best region in America. While I sympathize with our friends in the New York City area for losing Amazon HQ2, this is a great opportunity for the company to take a second, fresh look at Prince George's County as a great location for its investment, whether for HQ2, an operations or data center, or another critical asset.
We are home to Maryland's flagship university, the University of Maryland-College Park, which is producing incredibly talented computer science professionals every year, next to our Discovery District, a 150-acre public-private technology hub for cutting edge companies and technologies.
We also have the most available land for development in the region and substantial available transit infrastructure, with 15 metrorail stations, the future Purple Line, and MARC station access. The fact that Amazon is bringing HQ2 to Northern Virginia suggests that the company is attracted to what the DC region has to offer. We agree and encourage Amazon to double-down on this region.
Prince George's County is a pro-business county that is on its way to creating generational wealth for our residents and businesses. We would love for Amazon to become a part of our story.
