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Buffalo eyes Apple after losing Amazon HQ2

Posted at 9:18 AM, Jan 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-18 18:04:26-05

The Rochester-Buffalo area has failed to make it to the next round in the bid for Amazon HQ2, according to a news release sent out by the company this morning. Toronto, on the other hand, did make the short-list of cities still in the running for the Amazon headquarters.

Back in October of 2017, Invest Buffalo Niagara (InBN) and Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) announced a joint collaboration between the Buffalo and Rochester metro regions to build HQ2 here.

The company announced the 20 cities that had made it to the next round: 

- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Columbus, OH
- Dallas, TX
- Denver, CO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Montgomery County, MD
- Nashville, TN
- Newark, NJ
- New York City, NY
- Northern Virginia, VA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Raleigh, NC
- Toronto, ON
- Washington D.C.

"Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough - all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity," said Holly Sullivan, Amazon Public Policy, in a news release. "Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation."

Local reps now have their sites set on Apple. It announced Wednesday plans to build a new campus somewhere in the U.S. 

“We're going to take their interests and their connections that they had on other aspects of Apple business, we're going to take what we put together for Amazon, we're going to mush it together, and we're going to get it out to them with the people that we know and see if they'll give us some consideration,” said Invest Buffalo Niagara President and CEO, Thomas Kucharski. 

“We've made great strides in Erie Co. in terms of infrastructure, high tech jobs, opportunity for something like Apple to come here. So, they're scope is a little smaller than what Amazon was looking for so I think we'd be a perfect fit,” added Erie County Legislator, Joseph Lorigo.

There’s no word yet on what Apple is looking for in a future site other than it's looking to fill 20,000 jobs.

Invest Buffalo Niagara will enter into a nondisclosure agreement--meaning any offer details won't be made public.