Gov. John Hickenlooper called the prospects of Colorado highly touted a “longshot,” saying that the state’s biggest disadvantage could be its non-East Coast time zone.
“We’re a longshot, but I feel more confident every day,” the Democrat told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s like getting ready to go into a big game.”
Hickenlooper said he feels like the state — and Denver specifically — has about a 15 to 20 percent chance of getting what’s being called “HQ2.”
“I look at the other cities that we’re competing with, the other states, and I gotta say — I’m not saying we’re a better state or a better city than any of them — but I think we bring things to the table that none of them do,” he said.
He added: “There’s a lot of talk that they might want to be on an Eastern time zone. I think that’s our biggest disadvantage.”
The state to lure Seattle-based Amazon and the up to 50,000 jobs it could bring one of the dozens of cities hoping to get the second headquarters. Colorado’s economic development officials, citing a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon, have declined to divulge .
Amazon did not require that cities submitting requests for HQ2 be on the East Coast.
However, J. J. Ament, chief executive officer of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., said he too has heard speculation that Amazon might be seeking out an East Coast city. But that if it were really a disqualifier, he said, the company would have only sought proposals from communities that fit that geographic mold.
“I’ve heard speculation about everything,” he said. “… I would tell you that one of the advantages we have in our time zone is that as we increasingly become global, we are the only place in the United States where you can effectively do business in Europe and Asia in the same day. You can’t do that in Seattle, you can’t do that in Boston.”