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This is one of the reasons I see DC region as a reasonable choice, and they don't necessarily have to be in the city proper:
- Being in or near the nation's capital has its own implicit benefits on the policy/legal front
- If NOVA, you get a liberal region that still benefits from the southern-style, competitive lower-cost and pro-business environment
- In MD, the Greenbelt area was all but ready for the new FBI HQ
- Transit, Office Space, Connectivity, Workforce; check, check, check
- An East Coast office that is favorable in being closer to European Offices; if Tysons, the underutilized Silver Line would directly connect to Dulles or DCA with round the clock air travel available to all points of the globe.
- Strong institutions of higher education nearby
- Bezos owns the Washington Post, like you mentioned
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers based in NOVA, which is also powered by the Amazon Solar Farm US East in Accomack Co, VA; an existing partnership with Dominion Resources who recently announced an expansion with four new 20 MW solar farms in New Kent, Buckingham, Sussex, and Powhatan counties (Richmond area) and a 100 MW facility in Southampton County (Hampton Roads); in VA, Amazon purchases power from its own Solar Farms.
- Seattle and Washington compare favorably
- etc., etc., etc.
Honestly, I think I would like to see the project go to an urban place like Baltimore, but it's also hard to ignore DC has some unique existing advantages in existing infrastructure that make it particularly competitive. Even where it may fall short in certain business costs (which I think would make DC proper inhibitive), a state like VA and even MD will double down on incentives to get it done. There's a lot to work with.
If DC comes very hard on incentives, which I can guarantee will happen, I don't think there is any city with a better location than the area around Union Station in DC. We have 8 million square feet of development shovel ready within 5-10 blocks of Union Station right now. With the mass transportation network and highway access of that area, I don't know if there is a better site. National Airport is only 2 miles away.
I would never be happy of my city for providing corporate welfare to a large multi-national corporation that has a huge sum of capital already. Let them pay for their supposed relocation themselves.
There is nothing great about having to pay someone or something to come to your city, it just shows how the place isn't really sought after when you have to do that. Facebook decamped from Boston to San Francisco, not because San Francisco held a silver platter with gold and platinum on it but because Facebook needed the city more than the city needed them. San Francisco was the location that would take Facebook to the next level up and it did because it has more capital, talent, and resources to do so. Oxy Petroleum decamped from Los Angeles to Houston, not because Houston came to them with a juicy relocation package but because Houston is where the capital and engineering talent in the energy sector is. They needed Houston, Houston didn't need them. Same goes for New York. New York never hands a relocation package to any companies because those companies need New York more than New York needs them. CNN is based in Atlanta but all the high level executives are in New York. Same with Bank of America, based in Charlotte, but all the high level executives live and operate out of New York or Boston. Why? Because they need New York.
When you are a captain of industry, they come to you, you don't go to them and you especially don't go to them with a briefcase of money for incentives.
Obviously Bank of America and CNN are still based in Charlotte and Atlanta respectively and will remain as such, but the leadership and executives have started leaving for New York (or Boston in the case of Bank of America) because they need to be in those cities more. Capital, resources, market share, talent, and international portfolio - that's largely why.
Let me know when Amazon makes their decision, would be interested to know what second tier city unloaded a brinks truck for a glorified satellite office. I bet Amazon wont even register this second headquarters as an official headquarters when they report their earnings to Forbes and other trackers. If they would, they would be advertising this move as the creation of a dual headquarters, instead this makes it seem like the Seattle one is still tops and the second one is just the second largest concentration of Amazon operations and resources, that's all. Amazon hasn't made any mention of this being an official dual headquarters and because it says most of the corporate leaders will stay put, I firmly think Amazon is doing this to strategize future growth by getting some sucker of a city to pay for it. They are probably doing this because Seattle may be tapped out in growth.
I would never be happy of my city for providing corporate welfare to a large multi-national corporation that has a huge sum of capital already. Let them pay for their supposed relocation themselves.
There is nothing great about having to pay someone or something to come to your city, it just shows how the place isn't really sought after when you have to do that. Facebook decamped from Boston to San Francisco, not because San Francisco held a silver platter with gold and platinum on it but because Facebook needed the city more than the city needed them. San Francisco was the location that would take Facebook to the next level up and it did because it has more capital, talent, and resources to do so. Oxy Petroleum decamped from Los Angeles to Houston, not because Houston came to them with a juicy relocation package but because Houston is where the capital and engineering talent in the energy sector is. They needed Houston, Houston didn't need them. Same goes for New York. New York never hands a relocation package to any companies because those companies need New York more than New York needs them. CNN is based in Atlanta but all the high level executives are in New York. Same with Bank of America, based in Charlotte, but all the high level executives live and operate out of New York or Boston. Why? Because they need New York.
When you are a captain of industry, they come to you, you don't go to them and you especially don't go to them with a briefcase of money for incentives.
Obviously Bank of America and CNN are still based in Charlotte and Atlanta respectively and will remain as such, but the leadership and executives have started leaving for New York (or Boston in the case of Bank of America) because they need to be in those cities more. Capital, resources, market share, talent, and international portfolio - that's largely why.
Let me know when Amazon makes their decision, would be interested to know what second tier city unloaded a brinks truck for a glorified satellite office. I bet Amazon wont even register this second headquarters as an official headquarters when they report their earnings to Forbes and other trackers. If they would, they would be advertising this move as the creation of a dual headquarters, instead this makes it seem like the Seattle one is still tops and the second one is just the second largest concentration of Amazon operations and resources, that's all. Amazon hasn't made any mention of this being an official dual headquarters and because it says most of the corporate leaders will stay put, I firmly think Amazon is doing this to strategize future growth by getting some sucker of a city to pay for it. They are probably doing this because Seattle may be tapped out in growth.
I would agree, however, an 8 million sq. Ft. HQs is a different animal. For instance:
Seattle proper is gaining around 20,000 people per year because of Amazon. The economic benefit from the new development is sooooo much greater than giving them a lucrative tax abatement. Empty lots will remain empty for years without Amazon. I think you may also be forgetting that cities will still get the taxes from the office buildings that are built. Amazon will not own the buildings, they will lease the buildings. The tax abatement is just for the corporation.
A local example is this:
This is what developers like to call an "if not for" situation. If not for Amazon locating in DC proper, Capitol Crossing will be vacant for years, Union Station/Burnham Place will not breakground because they will lack office tenants stopping them from getting financing, all the empty lots I listed will remain empty for years. What will that mean for revenue in DC?
We won't be getting the taxes from the office buildings that would have been built, retail and restaurants that would have been opened, taxes from those that would have moved into DC to be near work and experience city living, and induced development across the city from Amazon locating 50,000 employees making an average of $100K in DC proper.
I would never be happy of my city for providing corporate welfare to a large multi-national corporation that has a huge sum of capital already. Let them pay for their supposed relocation themselves.
There is nothing great about having to pay someone or something to come to your city, it just shows how the place isn't really sought after when you have to do that. Facebook decamped from Boston to San Francisco, not because San Francisco held a silver platter with gold and platinum on it but because Facebook needed the city more than the city needed them. San Francisco was the location that would take Facebook to the next level up and it did because it has more capital, talent, and resources to do so. Oxy Petroleum decamped from Los Angeles to Houston, not because Houston came to them with a juicy relocation package but because Houston is where the capital and engineering talent in the energy sector is. They needed Houston, Houston didn't need them. Same goes for New York. New York never hands a relocation package to any companies because those companies need New York more than New York needs them. CNN is based in Atlanta but all the high level executives are in New York. Same with Bank of America, based in Charlotte, but all the high level executives live and operate out of New York or Boston. Why? Because they need New York.
When you are a captain of industry, they come to you, you don't go to them and you especially don't go to them with a briefcase of money for incentives.
Obviously Bank of America and CNN are still based in Charlotte and Atlanta respectively and will remain as such, but the leadership and executives have started leaving for New York (or Boston in the case of Bank of America) because they need to be in those cities more. Capital, resources, market share, talent, and international portfolio - that's largely why.
Let me know when Amazon makes their decision, would be interested to know what second tier city unloaded a brinks truck for a glorified satellite office. I bet Amazon wont even register this second headquarters as an official headquarters when they report their earnings to Forbes and other trackers. If they would, they would be advertising this move as the creation of a dual headquarters, instead this makes it seem like the Seattle one is still tops and the second one is just the second largest concentration of Amazon operations and resources, that's all. Amazon hasn't made any mention of this being an official dual headquarters and because it says most of the corporate leaders will stay put, I firmly think Amazon is doing this to strategize future growth by getting some sucker of a city to pay for it. They are probably doing this because Seattle may be tapped out in growth.
Your last sentence I think rings true in many ways.
I was researching Amazon's current Bay Area footprint. This region is currently the company's 2nd largest concentration of jobs with 30,000 employees. Many of their most popular innovations have major local input.
Quote:
The company, a major tech employer in the Bay Area, already has 3 million square feet of commercial space here, the majority in Sunnyvale. In San Francisco, it has 500,000 square feet, including multiple offices and a distribution hub for its Prime Now same-day delivery service. Local employees work on Kindle tablets, the Alexa voice-recognition service, and Twitch, a video-game streaming site, among other projects. The company is hiring for almost 1,000 positions in the region.
Image and of course the concession package will both be crucial.
I can see Tampa or Orlando area. Pleasant area for employees to work + live . Beneficial state tax structure. You rarely hear anything negative happening in Tampa. Its not the most dynamic place but that . could change if Amazon plants roots there.
I was researching Amazon's current Bay Area footprint. This region is currently the company's 2nd largest concentration of jobs with 30,000 employees. Many of their most popular innovations have major local input.
There aren't any distribution centers in the Bay Area unless you count Tracy which is out in the Central Valley.
Yeah the Peninsula is wayyy too expensive to have 3 million sq ft of distribution...lol
From Amazon's Jobs site, out of 1,000 or so jobs available in the Bay Area, nearly all are development, engineering and management so not sure what he's talking about.
Quote:
Many job opportunities are available throughout the Golden State, from Kindle hardware design to Bay Area Amazon subsidiaries include the following:
Amazon Digital Music | San Francisco, California
Alexa Internet | San Francisco, California
Goodreads | San Francisco, California
Amazon Lab126 | Sunnyvale and Cupertino, California
Alexa | Sunnyvale and Cupertino, California
A9 | Palo Alto, California
Amazon Web Services | San Francisco and Palo Alto, California
Amazon Game Studios | San Francisco and Palo Alto, California
Actually it would appear to me that Amazon Lab126 in Sunnyvale is the heart of the company's breakthroughs like Kindle and Echo.
Quote:
We are Amazon Lab126
Amazon Lab126 is an inventive San Francisco Bay Area research and development company that designs and engineers high-profile consumer electronic devices. We engineer devices like Fire tablets, Kindle e-readers, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Echo.
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