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View Poll Results: Where?
New York City 16 3.10%
Greater Boston 32 6.20%
Philly 38 7.36%
DC/N. Virginia 50 9.69%
Raleigh/NC Research Triangle 32 6.20%
Austin 48 9.30%
San Francisco/Bay Area/Silicon Valley 13 2.52%
Baltimore 11 2.13%
Toronto 33 6.40%
Pittsburgh 35 6.78%
Chicago 99 19.19%
Atlanta 109 21.12%
Voters: 516. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 09-08-2017, 10:04 AM
 
11,289 posts, read 26,061,602 times
Reputation: 11353

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Chicago officials immediately stated they would aggressively go after the headquarters, if anything this is one area Chicago really excels. I didn't think much of it, but with the $500,000,000 upgrade to the old Post Office fully underway to deliver 2,500,000sf of office space alone - that's unspoken for at the moment, steps away from transit and the metra stations, near the blue line to O'Hare, obviously a huge talent pool to draw from, the city has a booming business climate and is #1 in the country for corporate expansion. There were already previous visions for the area directly around the old post office that included multiple huge highrises with an additional millions of square feet of space. Upgrades are already in the works for Union Station and there were previous plans for a Clinton Street blue line expansion that would directly connect to this if it happened. Nice to think about at least, but of course there's going to be a LOT of competition for this from all across the country!

Anyway, the city might be a serious contender at the least. With all the construction and huge areas near downtown that are now in play and expanding/being reconstructed there are huge parcels that could handle a new campus like that, and there are already plans drawn up with plausible and major rail expansion with circulators through downtown and branches up to these parcels waiting to be redeveloped.

 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:06 AM
 
Location: OC
12,734 posts, read 9,370,423 times
Reputation: 10524
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc View Post
I think Austin has a strong shot for sure. I think Austin misses the major airport and strong public transportation pieces that they are needing, however.

It's probably on their short list--but in the end, I think either Atlanta, Boston or dark horse like Minneapolis gets it...
I think Austin does have flights out to most major US cities, but yes, the airport is pretty underwhelming and regional looking. But, that can change of course. The big question is public transportation. Also, if they want an existing physical building, I can't think of something that exists in downtown Austin. I presume they will want HQ to be in downtown, and not out in the boonies like Dell was. I say was as Round Rock has grown because of Dell. Of course, you couldn't pay me enough to live in a burb like RR. Dell had some major tax breaks when it opened its' fortress.


I think Austin is top 5, I don't think any city has a firm lead. For all I know, I could be wrong about them not wanting to be on the west coast and LA wins. Boston, ATL, NYC even Minneapolis makes a lot of sense. I don't think Denver is in contention.
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:07 AM
 
Location: OC
12,734 posts, read 9,370,423 times
Reputation: 10524
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago60614 View Post
Chicago officials immediately stated they would aggressively go after the headquarters, if anything this is one area Chicago really excels. I didn't think much of it, but with the $500,000,000 upgrade to the old Post Office fully underway to deliver 2,500,000sf of office space alone - that's unspoken for at the moment, steps away from transit and the metra stations, near the blue line to O'Hare, obviously a huge talent pool to draw from, the city has a booming business climate and is #1 in the country for corporate expansion.

It might be a serious contender. With all the construction and huge areas near downtown that are now in play and expanding/being reconstructed there are huge parcels that could handle a new campus like that, and there are already plans drawn up with plausible and major rail expansion with circulators through downtown and branches up to these parcels waiting to be redeveloped.
That's intriguing. And Chicago is a world class city to me.
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:11 AM
 
774 posts, read 2,488,208 times
Reputation: 737
Quote:
Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus View Post
Am I one of the only people here that a.) does not like Amazon, and b.) does not want Amazon to take over their city (especially if giant tax incentives and subsidies are provided, which is a given)? Feels like it. It's fun to fantasize about your city getting the opportunity to build out 8M SF of new office space and add 50K employees within 10 years (every urbanist's dream, I'd think), but at what cost?

To me, this is like shooting heroin, but for urbanism.
From my perspective, the value proposition isn't so much about Amazon itself, but rather that Amazon can instantly supercharge a whole slew of high paying ancillary businesses around it by moving to a city. We've seen incentives being provided to bring in factories in the recent past (which can employ a lot of workers but don't necessarily spur further development beyond the standard retail and restaurant options to serve those workers) along with executive headquarters moves (where the top executives move to a city, but the bulk of the other employees stay behind), but almost nothing on the scale of what Amazon is proposing where it wants a new base of both executives AND a critical mass of higher-paid employees that can instantly create an entire ecosystem around it.

There won't be just retail and restaurants being built to serve these workers (although that's still all well and good). This is about the accounting, law, marketing and consulting firms in that city getting a massive influx of business and, in turn, hire even more highly-paid employees. It's also about the top tech talent that ends up *leaving* Amazon to create new companies and/or become new leaders of existing companies in that city. Amazon is also unique among tech companies where, for better or worse, they're involved in a LOT of different industries. Beyond web commerce retailing, they have (a) become the dominant cloud services providers to companies with Amazon Web Services (created off of the backbone of their own IT infrastructure operations), (b) created an entertainment business where they're funding TV shows that have won Emmy Awards and movies that have been nominated for Oscars, (c) instantly became a dominant food industry player by buying Whole Foods, and (d) a logistics operation that can be leveraged far beyond their own needs (similar to what they've done with AWS and cloud services). As a result, Amazon isn't just a leader in the tech, but it provides world-class opportunities for workers in the entertainment, retail, food and logistics industries (so all of those sectors will get an instant boost in whichever city is chosen).

At the end of the day, if you're not growing as city, then you're dying. High profile opportunities like the one being presented by Amazon come along very rarely. Ultimately, the financial calculation for a city that wants to compete is whether it believes the ancillary businesses that will be developed *outside* of Amazon would compensate for the incentives provided to Amazon itself. Just looking at the scale and scope of Amazon's business, this is an instance where heavy financial incentives could very well make sense because the upside of the instant ecosystem that can be built around Amazon is so potentially huge.
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:14 AM
 
Location: Bel Air, California
23,771 posts, read 28,858,887 times
Reputation: 37326
a guy I know who is shtooping the admin ast to the Amazon VP in charge of new HQs development, said that she was asked to contact a real estate agent in Kansas City, KS for him PDQ and to keep it all on the QT
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:20 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
8,700 posts, read 14,609,456 times
Reputation: 3663
All Philadelphia has to do is show Amazon the marketing videos for Schuylkill Yards:
Schuylkill Yards - Where Ideas Converge

And the 30th Street Station District:


...literally EVERYTHING they're looking for and more, wrapped up into two videos.

#AmazonYardsPhiladelphia
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:23 AM
 
Location: Northeast states
13,966 posts, read 13,737,384 times
Reputation: 5105
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago60614 View Post
Chicago officials immediately stated they would aggressively go after the headquarters, if anything this is one area Chicago really excels. I didn't think much of it, but with the $500,000,000 upgrade to the old Post Office fully underway to deliver 2,500,000sf of office space alone - that's unspoken for at the moment, steps away from transit and the metra stations, near the blue line to O'Hare, obviously a huge talent pool to draw from, the city has a booming business climate and is #1 in the country for corporate expansion. There were already previous visions for the area directly around the old post office that included multiple huge highrises with an additional millions of square feet of space. Upgrades are already in the works for Union Station and there were previous plans for a Clinton Street blue line expansion that would directly connect to this if it happened. Nice to think about at least, but of course there's going to be a LOT of competition for this from all across the country!

Anyway, the city might be a serious contender at the least. With all the construction and huge areas near downtown that are now in play and expanding/being reconstructed there are huge parcels that could handle a new campus like that, and there are already plans drawn up with plausible and major rail expansion with circulators through downtown and branches up to these parcels waiting to be redeveloped.
Chicago is hungry for economic growth lol they tired of NYC, L.A, ATL, Seattle, Texas, Seattle, Bay Area, Denver, Boston in spotlight
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:28 AM
 
37,795 posts, read 41,505,631 times
Reputation: 27058
Quote:
Originally Posted by RightonWalnut View Post
All Philadelphia has to do is show Amazon the marketing videos for Schuylkill Yards:
Schuylkill Yards - Where Ideas Converge

And the 30th Street Station District:


...literally EVERYTHING they're looking for and more, wrapped up into two videos.

#AmazonYardsPhiladelphia
Philly should definitely be on the short list.
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:37 AM
 
Location: WA Desert, Seattle native
9,398 posts, read 8,744,272 times
Reputation: 8807
Quote:
Originally Posted by FAReastcoast View Post
Have you actually ever purchased anything in the state of Texas? There is most certainly Sales Tax in Texas.
I meant income tax. My error.
 
Old 09-08-2017, 10:37 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, NY
9,866 posts, read 14,200,080 times
Reputation: 10907
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker View Post
I think Austin does have flights out to most major US cities, but yes, the airport is pretty underwhelming and regional looking. But, that can change of course. The big question is public transportation. Also, if they want an existing physical building, I can't think of something that exists in downtown Austin. I presume they will want HQ to be in downtown, and not out in the boonies like Dell was. I say was as Round Rock has grown because of Dell. Of course, you couldn't pay me enough to live in a burb like RR. Dell had some major tax breaks when it opened its' fortress.


I think Austin is top 5, I don't think any city has a firm lead. For all I know, I could be wrong about them not wanting to be on the west coast and LA wins. Boston, ATL, NYC even Minneapolis makes a lot of sense. I don't think Denver is in contention.
I agree, if you build it, they will come, haha, as they say. So, the airport can grow/evolve, as can public transport. That's a big reason I still think a city like Nashville, or even Indianpolis, has a shot. They can land Amazon, then build out the infrastructure. This is most likely a super long shot though.

I agree that Denver is probably not on their radar. All in all, I think higher education and esteemed university status may win out over most everything else. That puts Boston, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta near the top of the pile....
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