Quartz ranks SLC has the best place for Amazon to put HQ2 (Salt Lake City: real estate, unemployment rate)

[mufc1878]

https://qz.com/1074386/the-hard-choi...-city-for-hq2/

I personally don't think it'll happen but would be a great choice.

[Montygirl]

I thought they already were coming into SLC

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

NOt settled AFAIK. Dallas is in the running but will be hurt by our public transit. SLC will be hurt by perceived cliqueishness.

[Beernik]

Prime real estate for it would be Kennecott's industrial park at Old Bingham Highway and 6200 West, just south of where Boeing moved in.

The Jones family will probably also pitch that parcel they pitched for the new prison.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

NOt settled AFAIK. Dallas is in the running but will be hurt by our public transit. SLC will be hurt by perceived cliqueishness.

Quarz' assessment is the only one I've seen that places SLC so high, and I don't buy it. Deserved or not, as much as Utah is viewed as a business-friendly place it's also regarded by the vast majority of outsiders - particularly those from the coasts - as a cliqueish Mormon hive of weirdness despite the skiing and outdoor stuff. This is hard to overstate and greatly under-recognized by native Utahns. It's also relatively close to Seattle, so little geographic advantage.

If that's not enough, UT politics are anathema (Mike Lee, Oren Hatch??) to the demographic that Amazon seeks to hire and retain. It's not a coincidence that almost all of the tech industry brain trust is located in blue states/cities. Sorry SLC, not a chance.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

Quarz' assessment is the only one I've seen that places SLC so high, and I don't buy it. Deserved or not, as much as Utah is viewed as a business-friendly place it's also regarded by the vast majority of outsiders - particularly those from the coasts - as a cliqueish Mormon hive of weirdness despite the skiing and outdoor stuff. This is hard to overstate and greatly under-recognized by native Utahns. It's also relatively close to Seattle, so little geographic advantage.

If that's not enough, UT politics are anathema (Mike Lee, Oren Hatch??) to the demographic that Amazon seeks to hire and retain. It's not a coincidence that almost all of the tech industry brain trust is located in blue states/cities. Sorry SLC, not a chance.

Okay, I get it. Outsiders regard Utah as "a cliquish Mormon hive of weirdness" and we native Utahns just don't seem to recognize it. I do. I recognize it simply because I've heard it said so many times that I can't deny that this is the perception. So, what I would like to hear from you and others are answers to these two questions:

Is the reputation as "a cliquish Mormon hive of weirdness" deserved or exaggerated?
What can native Utahns like me (especially those of us who are of the weird Mormon persuasion) do to change this?

[Beernik]

Amazon wants a 500,000 square foot of existing building space and the ability to expand up to 8,000,000 square feet.

The big cities bidding on it might have the existing building space covered. But where are you going to put 8,000,000 more square feet of floor space? In Seattle, they occupy 33 buildings to get 8.1 million square feet of space. I can't see New York or San Francisco being able to make a promise in the buildout.

In Salt Lake they could build a centralized campus from scratch instead of piecemealing one together.

But I think they will either pick somewhere Central/Midwest for distribution purposes or another port city for shipping

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Okay, I get it. Outsiders regard Utah as "a cliquish Mormon hive of weirdness" and we native Utahns just don't seem to recognize it. I do. I recognize it simply because I've heard it said so many times that I can't deny that this is the perception. So, what I would like to hear from you and others are answers to these two questions:

Is the reputation as "a cliquish Mormon hive of weirdness" deserved or exaggerated?
What can native Utahns like me (especially those of us who are of the weird Mormon persuasion) do to change this?

Great questions, Katz. I think in some cases its deserved while in other cases not. I'm going to seriously ponder the matter. Stay tuned.....

[Geo-Aggie]

Originally Posted by Beernik

...The big cities bidding on it might have the existing building space covered. But where are you going to put 8,000,000 more square feet of floor space? ...

But I think they will either pick somewhere Central/Midwest for distribution purposes or another port city for shipping

On top of this, a lot of Central and Midwestern cities have a lot of vacant space that could be expanded into due to being overbuilt in the early 20th century and then largely falling victim to suburbanization over the later 20th century.

Also, this analysis clearly only considers the city proper and not the metro area, which in my opinion tends to give SLC a bit of an over-rated status in the Quartz analysis as SLC is kind of the crown jewel of the Salt Lake metro area, which is very much in contrast to a lot of the older metro areas with legacy inner-city areas and upscale urbanized suburbs or border cities.

[elcee499]

I don’t see Amazon putting their headquarters in Salt Lake due to the simple fact that our population base does not support their business needs. Where will they find 50,000 new hires? The numbers don't add up.

• Salt Lake City has about 200,000 residents. Salt Lake County has 1.1 million, and the state of Utah has 3 million.
• The largest employer in the state is IHC with 37,000 employees.
• The unemployment rate in Utah is low – currently there are about 55,000 unemployed.

The comment that businesses would not choose Utah because it is "a cliquish hive of Mormon weirdness..." is childish and antagonistic. Businesses locate in cities that offer them a competitive advantage, and it's purely a financial decision. If a business needs to attract candidates from a nationwide pool, Utah's political climate may put them at a disadvantage. I believe that the issues that are most problematic to out-of-staters are recent land use decisions and restrictive alcohol laws.