Are you happy that your city won/lost Amazon HQ2? (NYC, development)

[SEAandATL]

I wasn't happy about the principles of why Atlanta was passed up (lack of transportation options and the MARTA train they took to the airport got delayed) but it's for the better in the end especially after hearing how that company is ran by Jeff Bezos (I heard the workers in the packaging/shipping department literally do not even get bathroom breaks). We ended up getting Microsoft HQ2 instead.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by SonySegaTendo617

I know it's old to comment about this now, but happy Chicago (or anywhere else in Chicago area) didn't get HQ2. Also, to me it's weird they didn't pick one eastern location for all those HQ2 jobs to go to, and split that up. To me seems like putting HQ2 in Philly would've been a good location, as it's halfway between DC and NYC.

And as it is, Chicago in recent years has thrown too much corporate welfare money around to attract new company headquarter relocations. Especially Emanuel, back when he was mayor.

And lol, if that was true that having an Amazon employee only railcar on MARTA and a Hartsfield airport lounge for Amazon employees, was part of Atlanta's proposal! Just goes to show cities were throwing too many corporate welfare incentives at greedy Bezos, if you ask me.

Philly apparently didn't fit the profile Amazon execs were looking for in HQ2. It was only a few types of cities they were going with:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2021/0...a-shot-at-hq2/

"Jassy “quipped that he and his employees would never want to live in Philadelphia.”...But Philly was judged “not viable” because Amazon considered it to be “still recovering from economic hardships” and “not a hotbed of engineering talent,” Adelman reports."

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by the resident09

Philly apparently didn't fit the profile Amazon execs were looking for in HQ2. It was only a few types of cities they were going with:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2021/0...a-shot-at-hq2/

"Jassy “quipped that he and his employees would never want to live in Philadelphia.”...But Philly was judged “not viable” because Amazon considered it to be “still recovering from economic hardships” and “not a hotbed of engineering talent,” Adelman reports."

Saying Philly didn't fit the "profile" is a really bogus claim. Philadelphia finished in the top 3 above DC, and the Washingtonian puffs out it's chest and says Philly can't compete us! The executives always knew they just wanted to be in NYC and Bezos wanted to be at his mansion in DC. Schuylkill Yards is a ballin' development that is still getting built without Amazon as the anchor.

[mhays25]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

I wasn't happy about the principles of why Atlanta was passed up (lack of transportation options and the MARTA train they took to the airport got delayed) but it's for the better in the end especially after hearing how that company is ran by Jeff Bezos (I heard the workers in the packaging/shipping department literally do not even get bathroom breaks). We ended up getting Microsoft HQ2 instead.

This Atlanta office sounds more like a big secondary office, not like an HQ2. The HQ2 idea was 50,000 workers (or maybe the 25,000 with HQ2a). Microsoft hasn't talked about a dual HQ.

I think Microsoft is around 50,000 HQ workers in Redmond/Bellevue and Amazon is about 60,000 in Seattle/Bellevue, with each building millions of square feet currently.

[cranberrysaus]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

I wasn't happy about the principles of why Atlanta was passed up (lack of transportation options and the MARTA train they took to the airport got delayed) but it's for the better in the end especially after hearing how that company is ran by Jeff Bezos (I heard the workers in the packaging/shipping department literally do not even get bathroom breaks). We ended up getting Microsoft HQ2 instead.

I think the real HQ2 we ended up getting is the giant State Farm complex in Dunwoody.

[SunGrins]

We were not really in strong competition but I was happy back in 2018 and still am for the same reasons but we are seemingly getting such development on a piecemeal and slower basis with smaller investments from Intel, Amazon, Facebook, Netflicks, and a half dozen more. Perhaps the big to do over Amazon's HQ put us on the radar and the city leadership got some attention. This is a better and more diversified growth strategy. We have a housing shortage and rising prices just from what we have seen at this lower level.

[Prickly Pear]

Bezos very specifically picked cities he had real estate in. It was intentional. The fact that they made it look like some kind of competition was a ruse to get the cities he had real estate in to offer concessions. Cities like NYC, DC should not have given one of the richest men in the world and his company anything and NYC did end up doing that.

If you don’t have a mansion in your city owned by Bezos you never really had an opportunity. Even if your city does have a lot to offer.

[ShenardL]

Originally Posted by mhays25

This Atlanta office sounds more like a big secondary office, not like an HQ2. The HQ2 idea was 50,000 workers (or maybe the 25,000 with HQ2a). Microsoft hasn't talked about a dual HQ.

I think Microsoft is around 50,000 HQ workers in Redmond/Bellevue and Amazon is about 60,000 in Seattle/Bellevue, with each building millions of square feet currently.

Well, the people with knowledge of Microsoft's plans say after they complete their full campus buildout you can expect around 30,000 workers in Atlantic Station and West Midtown.

[mhays25]

That would be a lot, no doubt. Maybe half of the main HQ's count.

[908Boi]

DC area resident. I'm happy it went to VA. Happy to see the DMV continued to diversify its economic base. Im optimistic there will be indirect positive effects in DC and MD.