See what Pittsburgh offered in its failed Amazon HQ2 bid

Pittsburgh released its failed bid for Amazon's second headquarters Thursday.

The bid was a closely guarded secret through the process, and officials from Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development refused to release details on the bid, including what incentives the city and county offered, and defended its secrecy in court.

Mayor Bill Peduto, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Stefani Pashman, head of the Allegheny Conference, held a news conference Thursday morning at the county courthouse to answer questions about the bid.

Amazon announced Tuesday that New York and Arlington, Virginia, would split the 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment Amazon has promised with its HQ2. The company will build an operations center with 5,000 jobs in Nashville. Those three locations offered government subsidies from states and municipalities totaling more than $3 billion.

SEE IT: Pittsburgh's Amazon HQ2 bid

PGHQ2, the partnership that developed and submitted the bid, said the city offered Amazon only two local investment packages, according to a statement.

"Neither included using any existing city or county tax money/revenues," the statement read. "Rather, the proposal included a strategy to make sure if Pittsburgh invested in Amazon, Amazon would have invested in us, to the benefit of all residents."

Peduto said they had a brief conversation with Amazon after the announcement. He said Amazon was complimentary of Pittsburgh and positive about its future in the city. Peduto said the conversation was similar to conversations had when couples break up.

"It's not you; it's me," Peduto said, recalling the conversation.

Within the bid, there were $556 million in local incentives for land and infrastructure.

The state incentives included up to $4.5 billion in performance-based grant funding and $100 million toward state transportation improvements, according to Wolf's office.

"In collaboration with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Public Schools, we are prepared to offer Amazon a package valued at $4 billion over 25 years," the bid read.

That $4 billion broke down as follows:

• $637 million in capital to reduce initial occupancy costs, such as land value, infrastructure and transit

• $1.3 billion in performance based grants as Amazon creates jobs

• $2.1 billion in the way of forging Pittsburgh's future investments. These investments would improve fund pre-K, K-12 and workforce development programs and ensure affordable housing and transportation and infrastructure.

"The incentives weren't the driving force that was making their decision," Fitzgerald said when asked what he made of the fact that Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania's incentives exceeded what Amazon got from the cities chosen for the HQ2 expansion.

Sites in Allegheny County offered to Amazon at no cost included:

• Hazelwood Green

• The former Civic Arena Site

• 44 acres in the Strip District offered by Oxford Development

• Carrie Furnace

• 152 acres owned by the Allegheny County Airport Authority near Pittsburgh International Airport

In addition to those five sites, the bid identified 30 additional sites that Amazon could use for more office space, logistics, fulfillment, research and other uses.

The bid argued: "What Amazon is looking for in cities across North America is already here. We have been preparing for this for thirty years. In so many ways, this bid holds up a mirror to who we are."

"We can't compete with the nation's capital in many ways," Fitzgerald said. "We can't compete with the nation's financial center in many ways, nor would we want to."