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Louisville business leaders say $170,000 Amazon HQ2 bid not a failure

The Louisville business community pushed forward a joint proposal with Southern Indiana, touting the region's high quality of life and low cost of living.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- It was a national competition with 50,000 high paying jobs and $5 billion in investment at stake for the place that will eventually be the home to Amazon's second headquarters. Like more than 200 other cities and region, Louisville submitted a bid, but Thursday's release of Amazon's 20 finalists saw the Derby City on the outside looking in.

"There is nothing about this that's a failure," Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, the chief of Louisville Forward, said. "There's a net positive on several fronts of this."

The Louisville business community pushed forward a joint proposal with Southern Indiana, touting the region's high quality of life and low cost of living, which it said was well received by Amazon, but when it came to a certain type of talent, the other finalists may have had a leg up.

"The major talent area that Amazon was looking for was software development engineers," Wiederwohl said. "So obviously they are a tech company, they're looking for tech talent."

Despite not making the cut, missing out to cities like Indianapolis, Nashville, Dallas, Boston and Washington, D.C., business leaders who worked together on the proposal said the $170,000 spent on the bid is not wasted money, with the lessons learned and the content produced for the bid putting Louisville in a good place for future opportunities.

"This was a great competition to be in, to try our chops, to learn things," Kent Olyer, the president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc., said. "We did. We now have a great platform to go forward for other ones. If Apple announces, which is all in the rumor mill, or other ones, we will be there trying to go for them, of course."

"The major feedback was keep doing what you're doing," Wiederwohl said. "You have planted the seeds for growth. You're doing the right things. Keep going. Keep forging ahead."

Other areas of growth Louisville needs to focus on, according to the business leaders, include transportation, both in terms of flights to and from Louisville as well as public transportation within the city.

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