As Boston puts the finishing touches on its bid for Amazon’s “second headquarters,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh confirmed what everyone knew all along: the city’s preferred site is Suffolk Downs.
Walsh told WBUR on Wednesday that the city’s bid will be “really focused around one location,” in East Boston. He didn’t name Suffolk Downs, but that’s where the soon-to-shutter horsetrack is located.
The 161-acre site emerged early as city officials’ top site, though they also indicated the bid would include four or five other locations to give Amazon a range of Boston options. Backers noted that Suffolk Downs is perhaps the only place in Boston that offers enough developable land for a campus Amazon envisions eventually consuming 100 acres. It is also straddled by two Blue Line stops, is close to Logan Airport, and has few environmental complications.
Advertisement
A spokeswoman for HYM Investments, which owns Suffolk Downs, declined comment Wednesday.
City officials plan to release their Amazon bid after submitting it Thursday and declined further comment on the mayor’s remarks. But Walsh’s comments Thursday signal that the city’s emphasis will be on one site in particular.
“I think I just broke a story,” Walsh told WBUR, according to a transcript. “I’m in trouble.”
Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.