Amazon dashed the Baltimore region’s hopes of landing the plum prize of its second headquarters and tens of thousands of new jobs, as the online retail giant excluded the city from its list of finalists announced Thursday.
But Maryland remained in the chase, with Montgomery County making the list of 20 finalists, and state officials quickly began assembling an incentive package to help the Washington suburb land Amazon.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh said she was very disappointed that the city’s proposal to put Amazon in the Port Covington development in South Baltimore didn’t make the cut, but added that it wouldn’t deter the city’s efforts to land other businesses, including Apple, which said Wednesday that it too plans another corporate campus employing thousands.
“Every time an opportunity presents itself, Baltimore will be in the mix,” Pugh said during a news conference Thursday morning at City Hall.
While Pugh said “we may never know” why Amazon didn’t pick Baltimore, she rebuffed suggestions that the city’s record-breaking pace of homicides was a factor. “If you go over the list … there are cities on the list with comparable crime rates,” she said.
“I think we had a great proposal,” Pugh said.
Click here to read the rest of the story written by Pamela Wood over at the Baltimore Sun