Amazon HQ? (Philadelphia: best, money, company)

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I've worked a ton in RTP in my career. IBM. Cisco. Nortel/BNR before it imploded. My sister got her PhD at Duke. You don't have a huge pool of top performer tech talent to raid there. There might be 50,000 workers there and another 10,000 IT contractors. That's like a couple square miles of Silicon Valley.

Amazon is recruiting talent globally. Most of the top talent lives in the high cost of living areas. You need to attract the guy who lives in Palo Alto and is the world authority on something.

If the guy in Palo Alto wants to try the east coast but isn't sure about a permanent relocation, he'll rent out the house for a while. They're going to be looking for money people, as well, the top 3 concentrations for that are NYC, San Francisco, & Charlotte. The biggest concentrations for certain things is on the coasts. The west coast is good for attracting talent from Asia. The east coast is better for Europe.

It's a crapshoot for everyone, but someone will win. The "losers" all get free advertising that they're willing to play ball. Everyone will eventually get something from someone, even if it's someone else.

[kidphilly]

folks sadly I think this was all smoke and mirrors, hope am wrong


I heard from a very credible source today that TX was always the choice and this whole thing was to get more incentives from TX


It sounds like MktstreetEl has the same intel and another cd poster pnwguy as well


its a shame if they made all these places waste the level of time, money and resources for something that really never was


dubious in its scale

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

It's a crapshoot for everyone, but someone will win. The "losers" all get free advertising that they're willing to play ball. Everyone will eventually get something from someone, even if it's someone else.

I'm not sure any of it is free advertising. Imagine how many hours our HIGHLY paid politicians spent doing this work, including marketing, business trips, whiskey for Kenney's huge booze nose.

[Lenses & Lights.]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

In Seattle, 45% of all the Amazon jobs are software jobs. It's an internet company. HQ is very different from a fulfillment center. Besides, there are fulfillment centers everywhere. Philly doesn't have a leg up there.

The point of the 2nd HQ is to be able to attract global talent. The top grads from world class universities. The A+ players Amazon poaches from the internet companies. The biggest problem Philly has is that if somebody relocates to Philadelphia and something happens with their Amazon job, they likely have to move for their next job. Philly doesn't have the critical mass for those kinds of jobs. If you're a top guy at Google, you're going to have big concerns about exiting the Bay Area housing market to relo to Philly. If something bad happens, you can't go back because you're locked out of the housing market. The same is true to a lesser degree with recruiting people from NYC, DC, and Boston. If I sell my house in the suburb with the good school system, I probably can't buy my way back in 3 years later if Amazon doesn't work out.

I have no sense for how sensitive Amazon will be to state/local income taxes for their employees. 3.9% resident/3.5% nonresident city tax layered on top of the 3% state income tax isn't very competitive. Then layer on the high property tax rates. It's better than New York but Amazon is not going to New York.

Well..., he or she doesn't have to sell their home. They could A. rent it out, B. continue to pay the mortgage while renting in Philly for the first 2-5 years (Pro athletes on air news talent and on-location actors-directors, etc; all do this in their chosen fields), and or C. maybe have Amazon place them in some sort of corporate housing situation? It's doable.

If Amazon wants to set up an 2nd HQ and draw top tier talent, should they have to move to a place where that talent is in abundance just in case a scenario arises that the employee quits or is terminated and can have nearby options to choose from? You think Bezo & staff are thinking that way? I mean aren't these 200-250K positions to start with for Tier 1 talent?

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

I'm not sure any of it is free advertising. Imagine how many hours our HIGHLY paid politicians spent doing this work, including marketing, business trips, whiskey for Kenney's huge booze nose.

Politicians are getting the same pay whether they prepare the bid or not. The governor of North Carolina has been working on this & putting out press releases, besides the bids from Raleigh & Charlotte. Once these releases are put out, it's advertising that there's a willingness to play ball. Other companies will take note.

Look, Grand Rapids & Detroit in Michigan have both applied or are in the process of applying. The chance of either being the winner is slim to none. However it's out there that they're taking a shot. It will pique someone's interest. They'll ask, &, guess what? The sales pitch is done & ready. The same goes for every other town that isn't the "winner ".

I still hope that Philadelphia gets it, but the reality is that no one wins every try. If they don't get it, something else will come along.

[Redddog]

The Texas thing makes sense. The only problem is that it's in Texas.

[Hannah5555]

Originally Posted by Redddog

The Texas thing makes sense. The only problem is that it's in Texas.

Why does that make sense based on the conversation so far? I've lived briefly in Houston, San Antonio and Austin, though not Dallas, but I just don't see it.

[Redddog]

It's the most business friendly state by far.

It's literally the polar opposite of Philly.

[kyb01]

So is it time for toobusy to close this thread? Or just let it die naturally?

[mslhu]

Lol, defeatist Philadelphians will never change. On the bright side, we apparently have the best sources in the biz!