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Removing the four Canadian cities puts Denver, Pittsburgh, Austin and Raleigh in the top 10
which means absolutely nothing without knowing what each city / metro area is willing to offer Amazon in regards to incentives, tax breaks, and real estate.
Vancouver?? lol. I don't see them going anywhere in Canada, let alone going right up the street yet having to deal with all the differences in laws and governments, as well as the hassles of international travel for virtually no reason.
Vancouver?? lol. I don't see them going anywhere in Canada, let alone going right up the street yet having to deal with all the differences in laws and governments, as well as the hassles of international travel for virtually no reason.
I personally would agree that it would be a long shot for them to co locate a HQ in Canada
end of the day the vast majority of us really don't know much though...
Valid points--certainly there's no shortage of talent being churned out of local Boston universities, but being that much of the student population is so global to begin with, I think there's always going to be only so many students that want to stick around locally long-term (for Harvard and MIT grads, in particular, the world is their oyster). Also complicating matters is that idea of staying in any one city forever is an increasingly foreign concept in our global economy.
You're absolutely right that long-term employment prospects do matter, but there are a number of cities where that isn't necessarily an issue (even if not every city is either SF, or to a lesser extent Boston, with multiple large tech HQs, there are still many other large cities with satellite offices and/or remote work options for large companies).
I'll also just drive the point home that issues such as transit access and housing costs will definitely play a role, as they all are crucial quality-of-life considerations for potential employees. That's to say nothing of the very difficult task of finding copious, reasonably-priced and shovel-ready real estate in economically competitive areas.
Also valid points.
Another factor that will push Amazon towards the talent rich cities is the fact that the median tenure for amazon professional staff is aprox. 1 year. They will need that talent pipeline flowing at max capacity to fuel their growth plans.
Kind of interesting to wonder who will make the final decision and how many are truly "in the know". If government secrets can be so easily leaked, maybe this will eventually be leaked prior to the announcement. But I suppose Bezos will try to keep it close to the vest until the end...
Good read that makes Philly seem like a good contender! But I do just feel the need to point this out...
Quote:
Denver is a really a high-altitude version of Seattle, but with a more inconveniently located airport.
How is this even true when Denver is one of the only cities in the US where you can fly to anywhere in 4hrs or less? Under 7.5hrs if you include Hawaii. It's definitely inconvenient for flying out of the country, but you'd think Seattle is the main place Amazon would need to be within reasonable distance to .
To me, Boston is like the east coast version of Seattle, but with better colleges and 4 seasons. Also, more developed, better transit and walkable. But maybe Bezos wants a city that is the opposite of Seattle?
This is correct.
Amazon is looking for a place like Seattle but in a different geographical location. Amazon wants a similar sort of workforce and tech environment. Choices such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Austin, Denver, and even San Diego make a lot of sense for that since their tech industries and talent pools more closely resemble that of Seattle's. Portland can be ruled out because its 180 miles from HQ1 but otherwise would have been a strong contender as well. Techies in general live similar enough lives in most of these cities; low murder rate, an outdoorsy culture, that REI culture, the vegan thing, a creative economy, major talent pool from the large enrollment universities -- all of which have an incredible emphasis on their computer science and engineering programs, and generally the type of places that people have been and will continue gravitating to. The left side of the brain type of cities, if you will.
Boston is also where Alexa, Amazon's Artificial Intelligence unit is being developed. Austin and Denver (along with Madrid) are some of Amazon's most important sales and marketing hubs.
This report was published July 25th, 2017, so basically a month and a half before Amazon announced its decision to expand with a second headquarters. It is telling, I suspect the cities that end up on Amazon's shortlist will be among these, or New York.
I think Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington D.C. are strong contenders in the sense that they meet the criteria and are uber successful cities at luring headquarters, their reputations and track records with doing such precedes itself. Not just this decade but the last 40 years in general. Whether it is Jacobs Engineering (Dallas), Mercedes-Benz (Atlanta), ConAgra (Chicago), Northrop Gruman (Washington D.C.), Toyota Motors (Dallas), Caterpillar (Chicago), Hilton America (Washington D.C.) and even more basic headquarters for more basic service level companies such as Nestle (Washington D.C.), Pei Wei (Dallas), or Jamba Juice (Dallas) these places have been incredibly successful at corporate headquarter relocations.
For the reasons that they meet majority, if not all of the stated criteria they cannot be discounted and the fact that they are so good at luring headquarters makes them true competition but I don't think Amazon is landing in these places. Amazon is different, they are not going after a corporate relocation, they are doing the rare deed of establishing a dual headquarters. So all the theories of where the CEO wants to live and the biggest tax breaks and all that diminish given that Jeff Bezos will still be operating out of Seattle, Amazon doesn't need the money but wants it as a gesture of good faith and commitment, and wants to divide its operations between two locations to decentralize the company as it continues to grow immensely.
There may be other options too but I think it will ultimately come down to somewhere that is most like Seattle both by tech and by lifestyle and appeal, and somewhere that has the talent pool and tech scene already in place. I think it will be one of the places that you see in the image above in my post IMO.
To me, Boston is the frontrunner. Not just because Bloomberg said so but because it seems to be where Amazon is investing the most of its operations for the future. Alexa is Bezos' big thing, aside from Blue Origin, Alexa is his true passion and what he wants to develop the most. He said as such in a public interview that I just watched a few hours ago from last year.
I was incorrect; sorry Portland, Vancouver is the option that makes the least sense. It is basically Seattle except smaller, more expensive, and prettier. Toronto, maybe Montreal, I can see, but I seriously doubt anywhere in Western Canada is being considered.
@Mezter, I think that person was talking about the location in relation to the city of Denver, not to other destinations. I don't remember from personal experience (I've only flown to Denver once, driven all other times) but the distance from the city seems to be one of the only, and common, complaints people have about DEN.
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