By Owen Kingsley
Mayor Curt Leng says Hamden could be a strong candidate for a new Amazon headquarters, according to an interview in the Hamden Patch, after the company announced earlier this month its intentions on building new headquarters in North America.
This news has brought a wave of candidate towns and cities coming forward including right here in Connecticut. New Haven, Danbury, Bridgeport and Hartford have already voiced their interests.
In the interview with Hamden Patch, Leng does not hide his excitement.
“I don’t think it’s far-fetched at all,” he said. “In fact I think we can most certainly make a push for it. There are a couple potential parcels that come to mind and we’re beginning to explore them. I’m personally going to try to reach out to their real estate folks at Amazon just to let them know we would talk to them for sure.”
The new headquarters would produce as many as an estimated 50,000 jobs for the surrounding area. This would give a boost to the Connecticut economy after the state has seen the loss of General Electric and Aetna’s Headquarters in recent years to both Boston and New York City respectively.
Leng cited a Yale Daily News article on Facebook last Thursday about the headquarters saying Amazon should consider this Hamden collaboration.
“Hamden and the Greater New Haven area has so much to offer and could be an amazing home for the new Amazon HQ,” he wrote. “Most certainly worth fully exploring what could be a wonderful opportunity for partnership for our region.”
Amazon’s main requirements for a new headquarters location are that they be in an urban or suburban area, within a metropolitan area of at least one million people, according to the New York Times. Hamden would certainly meet all of those requirements being a Suburban town with Union Station next door in New Haven that directly connects to New York City.
Hamden would join Seattle, Washington as the only other Amazon Headquarters in North America.