If developer Michael Harrah gets his way, Santa Ana will become home to Amazon’s enormous new second headquarters, repurposing three proposed development sites in the city into a 10 million-square-foot, high-tech hub.
The Santa Ana real estate tycoon recently unveiled plans to join Irvine and dozens of other suitors nationwide in wooing the online retail giant and the 50,000 well-paying jobs such a project will bring.
Harrah’s plan, dubbed “Orange County Silicon City,” includes a beefed-up proposal for redeveloping the Orange County Register’s recently vacated 20-acre site on Grand Avenue, along with his still-unbuilt One Broadway Plaza tower a mile away in downtown Santa Ana.
It also calls for the redevelopment of the 102-acre Willowick Golf Course on Santa Ana’s western edge. A light rail currently under development, the OC Streetcar, eventually would link all three sites, just over 3 miles apart.
In all, the project would provide 5.7 million square feet of office space, 2.4 million square feet of retail and restaurants, 400 hotel rooms and nearly 4,500 apartment and condo units.
“It fits everything they’re looking for,” Harrah said. “I’ve answered everything that they need, including 10 million square feet.”
Harrah’s bid pits Santa Ana against Irvine and perhaps close to 200 other communities vying to lure Amazon to their region.
The competition is tough. Contenders include the likes of New York City, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles.
The rush for Amazon gold began Sept. 7 when the company announced a competitive site selection process for a second corporate headquarters that will be “a full equal” to its current home — an 8.1 million-square-foot complex set in 33 buildings in downtown Seattle.
The company opened the competition to all of North America.
Amazon officials said they’re looking for a metro area with at least a million people, a business-friendly environment, a large pool of technical talent, access to mass transit and major highways with an international airport no more than 45 minutes away. Amazon’s request for proposals also seeks amenities preferred by young professionals, such as recreational and educational opportunities and “an overall high quality of life.”
The company also is seeking a generous package of incentives.
In exchange, the business plans to spend $5 billion or more developing its new “HQ2” over 15 to 17 years. Proposals are due Oct. 19.
Within minutes of announcing the offer, Orange County’s biggest land developer, Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, issued a statement saying his firm will work with Irvine officials to identify specific plans and locations for Amazon to consider. The Irvine City Council soon voted to support that effort.
Details of the Irvine plan haven’t been divulged, but the Irvine Co. has nearly 600,000 square feet of office space under construction in its “Next Gen” projects near the Irvine Spectrum Center. The bulk of its newest 20-story office tower, the 428,000-square-foot 400 Spectrum Center, also remains available.
The Orange County Business Council and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce launched efforts to unite Orange County behind the Irvine offer, with the OCBC seeking letters of support from all 34 cities in the county.
“Landing the headquarters of a cutting-edge technology behemoth disrupting the global economy is exactly what Orange County needs as the next step in our community’s social, cultural and economic evolution,” stated an opinion piece co-authored by business council CEO Lucy Dunn, former Chapman University President Jim Doti and Register Opinion Editor Brian Calle.
Harrah’s “Silicon City” proposal threatens to divide Orange County, pulling support from the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove, which owns the Willowick Golf Course.
But Harrah — the colorful, 6-foot-6 motorcycle-riding former construction worker with a Santa Claus beard — boasts that larger, less affluent Santa Ana trumps Irvine because it’s more urban, more cutting-edge and is located slightly closer to Los Angeles International Airport.
“There are things you don’t have in Irvine. Irvine is surrounded by suburbia,” Harrah said in a phone interview. “Millennials aren’t looking for that.”
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido likewise hailed the proposal to bring Amazon to his city.
“It’s going to be a strong package,” Pulido said. “We’re showing the streetcar as a strong link. The other connector that we’re making is the Metrolink, which connects to Orange and Anaheim.”
Amazon’s proposal encourages states and regions to work together on one proposal per metro area. But the business council’s Dunn and Irvine Mayor Don Wagner both were diplomatic about Harrah’s entry into the competition. Wagner said in an email both proposals “will somewhat reinforce each other.”
“The region has significant advantages and, to the extent Santa Ana can harness those advantages, then it, too, can offer a competitive application,” Wagner said. “That said, I am also quite confident in the strength of our own application.”
Dunn said every city in the county will benefit regardless of which proposal wins. “This is a moment of great pride for all of us,” she said.
Dunn noted, however, that Irvine’s strengths include 900 high-tech businesses located in a master-planned community that’s “designed for growth.”
Both Irvine and Santa Ana share one common drawback with others seeking to make pitches in California, said Southern California economist Christopher Thornberg: A lack of geographic diversity.
Noting that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, Thornberg speculated that he wants to be in or near Washington D.C.
“Why would they come here?” asked. “My thought is (Bezos) would want to be on the East Coast.”
