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These rankings are becoming about as trustworthy as "Most Livable Cities" and other worthless lists. Attracting talent and being in a strategic location to move people in and out of the metro will be two super important things. The other real thing to consider is that executives and other high-profile players will live in the chosen city. That hidden desire will likely drive things as well.
New Jersey sent their bid for Amazon HQ2 in yesterday. They tweaked the bid up a little bit. The state confirmed that it is going to offer Amazon a total of $7 Billion in tax incentives and/or subsidies. $7 Billion!!
With $5 Billion of that coming straight from the state's own coffers and the other $2 Billion of it being accumulated locally by the city of Newark in the way of tax rebates or lessened taxes or something of that sort.
Given that Amazon is only investing $5 Billion into constructing and maintaining their new HQ2 facilities, they ran off like bandits with this New Jersey deal. If they go with New Jersey that is, which I don't see why not given that North Jersey offers them just about everything in the RFP with regards to schools, airports, market size, location, technical talent, transit, and even the cost of living is reasonable enough. There's also the fact that it is the bedroom community to the most powerful city in the United States too.
Honestly $7 Billion is more than what I ever imagined anywhere shelling out for this thing. In the back of my mind I thought that $6 Billion would be the highest we'd see but clearly not. LOL, essentially New Jersey gives Amazon $7 Billion, Amazon then in turns reinvests $5 Billion of that back into New Jersey and pockets the remaining $2 Billion.
What a sweet deal if you're Amazon. LOL, cant wait to find out what other places offered but this is without a doubt the highest so far that anyone has publicly announced. If you're in a place competing against the New York/New Jersey area, yeah, good luck to you, they're literally going all out for HQ2.
Between U of R, RIT and all those Engineers and other high skilled workers laid off by Kodak and Xerox still hanging around I don't see how Rochester would be so below Austin, and East Coasters would probably be willing to move there as it's 5.5-6 hours Fromm Bos/NY/Philly
Between U of R, RIT and all those Engineers and other high skilled workers laid off by Kodak and Xerox still hanging around I don't see how Rochester would be so below Austin, and East Coasters would probably be willing to move there as it's 5.5-6 hours Fromm Bos/NY/Philly
Old Kodaker's are not sitting around with knives sharpening their skillsets; they're driving truck, living someplace else (North Carolina?), or doing whatever. Kodak is officially and literally dispersed. Xerox workers are still around to some extent, but I know many that are moving or moving on. But it's not like that's a real resourcing strategy for Amazon... There is some accessible talent pool, but it's small compared to larger cities. Good jobs are motivators, but a six hour proximity to the East Coast isn't exactly an incentive for East Coasters. I don't know, I don't see it. But I also don't see many other cities on the list being real possibilities either. Jersey's $7B is stupid money.
Wow, 7 billion handouts from the taxpayers of NJ for a location in Newark?? Even then I can't see Amazon ever locating their HQ in Newark. Also because of increased payroll costs, even if only an avg of 20K a year more per employee vs a cheaper area, could cost them an extra 1 billion every year.
Wow, 7 billion handouts from the taxpayers of NJ for a location in Newark?? Even then I can't see Amazon ever locating their HQ in Newark. Also because of increased payroll costs, even if only an avg of 20K a year more per employee vs a cheaper area, could cost them an extra 1 billion every year.
Cost overruns shouldn't make much of a difference to them with regards to their decision. The technical talent pool and local leadership that fosters their growth appears to be their go-to bottomline (incentives, regulatory breaks, so on). They seem to have already given it deep thought even before making their RFP public. They took into account the unfolding of this very scenario actually.
In their RFP they noted this, take a look at the sentence that I've underlined:
Quote:
"The Project is expected to create as many as fifty thousand (50,000) new full-time jobs with an average annual compensation exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per employee. We will begin sourcing for talent at Amazon HQ2 upon final site selection. Please note that the actual average wage rate may vary from the projected wage rate depending upon prevailing rates at the final location. Amazon also provides a highly competitive benefits package including a retirement plan, health insurance, and maternity/paternity leave, featuring Amazon’s Leave Share and Ramp Back program. All job numbers, categories, and salaries contained herein are estimates/projections and are subject to change. The jobs will likely be broken down into the following categories: executive/management, engineering with a preference for software development engineers (SDE), legal, accounting, and administrative. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer."
In technical terms, what that means is that the $100,000 "average salary" figure that they've been using is just a placeholder amount. If they go with a lower cost location then the average salary levels will likely dip beneath six figures, likewise if they go with a more expensive location, they'll have to up their average annual salary a little bit to compensate for cost of living and cost of operation differences (they almost assuredly will have to and it doesn't seem to bother them it seems judging by their language).
Up to this point, Amazon's played their part brilliantly.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 10-17-2017 at 03:20 PM..
True, but if Amazon expressed the least bit of interest in Philly as a finalist, you'd better believe state and local officials would be tripping over themselves to make the necessary changes to land HQ2.
Yes, as I quoted somewhere earlier in this thread a city official who is managing the bid said they would gladly make necessary tax and governance adjustments as needed for Amazon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Facts Kill Rhetoric
Honestly $7 Billion is more than what I ever imagined anywhere shelling out for this thing. In the back of my mind I thought that $6 Billion would be the highest we'd see but clearly not. LOL, essentially New Jersey gives Amazon $7 Billion, Amazon then in turns reinvests $5 Billion of that back into New Jersey and pockets the remaining $2 Billion.
Some of my friends have been adamant that the winner would exceed the $8.2B that Boeing got from Washington.
In technical terms, what that means is that the $100,000 "average salary" figure that they've been using is just a placeholder amount. If they go with a lower cost location then the average salary levels will likely dip beneath six figures, likewise if they go with a more expensive location, they'll have to up their average annual salary a little bit to compensate for cost of living and cost of operation differences (they almost assuredly will have to and it doesn't seem to bother them it seems judging by their language).
Up to this point, Amazon's played their part brilliantly.
To get people to work/live in north jersey/ NYC they're going to have to pay a premium, not a slight increase. An increased wage cost of a billion a year is massive and Amazon has very thin profit margins when it makes any. In my opinion it would be a huge mistake.
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