Louisville’s offer for Amazon HQ2 included state park to be renamed ‘Camp Alexa’

$2.5 billion in incentives over 20 years and a state park named for your voice assistant? How did Amazon pass on Louisville, Ky.?

Maybe Alexa wasn’t part of the HQ2 site-selection committee.

Louisville, in league with surrounding communities, was one of 238 cities to bid in Amazon’s 2017 headquarters sweepstakes that ended with the Seattle-based corporate giant choosing Virginia and New York City (It later backed out of New York because of local opposition, though it’s growing big time in the Big Apple anyway, announcing 2,000 new corporate and tech jobs there last week.)

In an earnest attempt to attract Amazon to the shores of the Ohio River, Louisville offered a package that included an offer to rename nearby General Butler State Resort Park “Camp Alexa,” according to the city’s 137-page HQ2 bid. The document was unearthed this month through an open records request and court fights with the city’s mayor by the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The 800-acre state park, midway between Louisville and Cincinnati, could be dedicated for Amazon’s use and serve as “the Camp David to your Amazon HQ2 White House,” local officials suggested in their bid. Alternatively, with some new construction, it could merge “park and headquarters.”