Last night at HKS Inc.’s downtown office, firm executives welcomed Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas Regional Chamber chief Dale Petroskey, and an intimate crowd of industry players for an HQ2 post-mortem. It was less about licking wounds and more about marveling at new opportunities.
In partnership with local developers, Dallas was able to amass a 28 million-square-foot “Super Site” of potential office space in its bid for Amazon’s HQ2—more than three times the square footage the e-commerce giant asked for in its request for proposals. The conglomeration of space from three different landholders—Hunt Consolidated, Matthews Southwest, and the KDC/Mike Hoque partnership—spans the southern and southeastern boundaries of downtown Dallas and is still very much in play for other corporate relocations.
The Super Site features a massive new deck park over Interstate 30, the gateway to Dallas overlooking the Trinity River, and a host of other office and residential buildings. (Click through the attached slideshow for renderings of all proposed sites.)
Rawlings said he is proud of the teamwork Dallas displayed in the chase for HQ2 and, citing inspiration from legendary coach Vince Lombardi, that he believes we should celebrate the victories within the loss. “When you’re winning, ask for more, and if you don’t quite make it, lift everybody up.”
Much as they were on the day of the HQ2 announcement, Rawlings and Petroskey were adamant that the loss of HQ2 is not so much a closed door as it is an opportunity for growth, and a host of newly opened doors for companies that were waiting to see what Amazon would choose.
“We’re going to continue to win,” Petroskey said. “There are a lot of companies that have been circling, and now that Amazon has made its choice, I think a lot of them are going to start to land here.”
