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I think the whole "mass transit" requirement is about employees getting to and from work.
It's a de facto component of the evolved 21st century workplace for an improved quality of life.
Precious hours wasted sitting on clogged highways while polluting the air as much as possible can't be in the game plan.
Personally, I don't think rail to the airport is super critical, although it would be nice.
I also think they could live with an airport not as big and busy as CLT.
I think RDU might barely meet the airport requirement, because it has daily direct flights to London, Paris and all the West Coast cities specifically mentioned.
I predict Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte will make it to the finals.
What if they chose halfway between like Burlington or Asheboro or Greensboro?
We know that Amazon and North Carolina are already close business partners, just look at the 100 400' tall wind turbines in Northeastern NC powering (I assume) an Amazon server farm.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by architect77
I think the whole "mass transit" requirement is about employees getting to and from work.
It's a de facto component of the evolved 21st century workplace for an improved quality of life.
Precious hours wasted sitting on clogged highways while polluting the air as much as possible can't be in the game plan.
Personally, I don't think rail to the airport is super critical, although it would be nice.
I also think they could live with an airport not as big and busy as CLT.
I think RDU might barely meet the airport requirement, because it has daily direct flights to London, Paris and all the West Coast cities specifically mentioned.
I predict Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte will make it to the finals.
What if they chose halfway between like Burlington or Asheboro or Greensboro?
We know that Amazon and North Carolina are already close business partners, just look at the 100 400' tall wind turbines in Northeastern NC powering (I assume) an Amazon server farm.
Do you know where the river district is? It's going to be built between the airport & the Catawba, going toward Belmont. If Amazon wants to design their own enclave, that would be their chance. The reason for the light rail to CLT? - just extend it to the Amazon property. Do I have to spell everything out? That's why I kept saying that it would be walking distance to the airport. If you don't know, just ask.
The River District will not have 500,000 - 1,000,000 square feet of office space ready for them to move into in Q1 2019. It is the first requirement in the RFP.
Amazon is not looking for a site where they have to temporarily lease in one area and then move again. They need office space faster than River District can deliver.
The whole Wilkinson Blvd corridor will be transforming. Amazon would be able to influence it & make sure that it's connected & blends into Uptown. They can make the light rail to the airport happen right away in incentive negotiations. The paper company got the northern bypass in Shelby as part of their incentive to locate in Shelby. It's been done before. It can be done again. If they get to that point & Phil Berger squashes it. We are as good as rid of him.
As to being walking distance from the airport. It's that close. Think of it as being spitting distance. Ya don't have to spit.
I understand that the River District is that close to the airport, but that's no real benefit compared to being next to something like 30th Street station.
Proximity to mass transit is a stated requirement in the RFP. Being in walking distance to an airport is not.
The most likely situation is being off the Blue Line IF Amazon lands in Charlotte. The Blue Line and Extension will be finished, creating a rail link from near the SC/NC border to University City. Uptown is the best geographic location for capturing talent from across the metro which we will need in order to support 50,000 jobs. Go too far west and you lose the talent pool in Cabarrus, etc... Go to far north or east and you lose Ballantyne, Weddington, Fort Mill, etc... The silver line already has momentum for providing a rail link down to Matthews and the Gold Line could be extended to the airport.
They would be able to line up 500,000 square feet to 1,000,000 square feet from existing skyscrapers by 2019 in Uptown and then they can plan a build out plan of some new skyscrapers on vacant lots in Uptown just like they've done in Seattle.
The delivery of office buildings in the River District will miss Amazon's phase 1 requirement and the rail construction will be too far off (think 2022), which would put us at a serious disadvantage over other cities proposing sites with a rail link today. Uptown and the Blue Line are our best hope.
Shipping to and from Canada means export/import paper work plus duty. It makes no sense when 90% of customers are located south of the border.
Many companies are moving away operations from Canada due to higher taxes, especially when last socialist federal/provincial governments keep adding taxes and regulations. Their "free healthcare" it is anything but free.
Even if AMZN's hypothetically selected Toronto (or any Canadian city), why would anyone presume products destined to US buyers would even be shipped in/out of Canada? Without directly involving ex/im paper work, even the current AMZN has plenty of business activity, functions, and people/brains which could potentially sit in Toronto or any site selected as HQ2. For example, expanded financial services a la Alibaba leveraging a Toronto, Boston, Charlotte ...
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CLT4
The most likely situation is being off the Blue Line IF Amazon lands in Charlotte. The Blue Line and Extension will be finished, creating a rail link from near the SC/NC border to University City. Uptown is the best geographic location for capturing talent from across the metro which we will need in order to support 50,000 jobs. Go too far west and you lose the talent pool in Cabarrus, etc... Go to far north or east and you lose Ballantyne, Weddington, Fort Mill, etc... The silver line already has momentum for providing a rail link down to Matthews and the Gold Line could be extended to the airport.
They would be able to line up 500,000 square feet to 1,000,000 square feet from existing skyscrapers by 2019 in Uptown and then they can plan a build out plan of some new skyscrapers on vacant lots in Uptown just like they've done in Seattle.
The delivery of office buildings in the River District will miss Amazon's phase 1 requirement and the rail construction will be too far off (think 2022), which would put us at a serious disadvantage over other cities proposing sites with a rail link today. Uptown and the Blue Line are our best hope.
This is true, but could Amazon like the idea of having a visible hand in designing an area plus having a heavy hand in the design of the residential units near that facility?
I think that the possibility exists that they might go with Schuylkill Yards for HQ2 with the river district getting an east coast shipping facility. They're already entrenched in the area. I think that they get something more out of this.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,670,113 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77
I understand that the River District is that close to the airport, but that's no real benefit compared to being next to something like 30th Street station.
Proximity to mass transit is a stated requirement in the RFP. Being in walking distance to an airport is not.
I honestly think that Schuylkill Yards hits too many points on the wishlist to be ignored. I also think that the river district will hold an allure for them. I think that both cities eventually get a win out of this.
If we got it, it would have to be on the Light Rail line..
no benefit at all in being close to the airport.
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