October 20, 2017

Why our HQ2 proposal to Amazon is confidential

hq2 confidential proposal piece county wa tech

What’s the big secret?

When it comes to the Tacoma/South Sound RFP response to Amazon’s HQ2, there’s one question everyone is asking:

“What’s in the Tacoma/South Sound proposal to Amazon?”

The Seattle Times devoted an entire article to the fact that cities around North America aren’t disclosing specifics of their bids for HQ2. So did CNN.

Every reporter we’ve been in contact with has asked when they can see the proposal. One followed up with the EDB after the October 18 press conference to ask if the proposal was really in the box at the press conference or if the box was a prop. Unlike for Schrödinger’s cat, we can say with complete certainty that the final proposal was, in fact, safely nestled in that very box. In quintuplicate, much less.

But our lips are sealed on what’s in that proposal for one simple reason:

Every client – be they Amazonian or Lilliputian – is guaranteed confidentiality by the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County.

There is a litany of reasons why the EDB maintains confidentiality in its client interactions. We’ll leave it to your imagination why a company might not want their plans for a possible move or expansion made public.

Some economic development groups have decided to make their HQ2 bids as public as the HQ2 RFP was itself. A quick Google search will lead the curious to their responses.

As for us, the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County will follow our established protocol for HQ2 by extending the same confidentiality to the Amazon bid as to every economic development project we encounter.

That’s a promise you can count on.

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