BY Gerry Widdicombe – Widdicombe Consulting and former DowntownDC BID Economic Development Director
“Given recent press focusing mainly on the negative aspects of the District providing incentives to attract Amazon HQ2, I would like to present an optimistic “business point of view” on the city’s efforts to attract Amazon’s HQ2 here.
It is clear there are positives and negatives of the District’s landing Amazon HQ2.
The positives are:
- The diversification of the city’s economy away from its dependence on the federal government;
- The workforce development impact by creating 50,000 new job openings that many city residents could take;
- The attraction of other companies seeking a similar workforce that would further diversify the city’s economy;
- The creation of new companies by employees that would likely leave Amazon overtime and stay in the city, and;
- An estimated $180 million to $240 million of new annual property tax, individual income tax and sales tax revenues.”