Amazon solicits bids from North American cities for a second HQ (Columbus: houses, university)

[motorman]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are a liberal bastion despite hosting the Republican National Convention.



Ridiculousness. Dynamic cities have excellent pro sports, good recreational opportunities, and superb cultural constitutions. Cleveland scores highly on all three, especially cultural institutions.

Cities lacking world-class cultural institutions, such as Cincinnati, don't understand the attraction that the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Playhouse Square offer to potential employees.

As a graduate of Princeton University, one of the world's very best liberal arts universities (it doesn't even have a business school or offer an undergraduate business degree), it's likely that Bezos values cultural institutions. His wife was a Princeton English major.

As you mentioned, Cleveland's cultural institutions are indeed formidable, but in no way do they position it way above Cincinnati or Columbus, two cities that field strong assets of their own that can't be overlooked for winning HQ2. However, none of this really matters. In the end, Amazon's list will be winnowed down to just a select few cities so large and arrayed with assets, they blow any of the "3-C's"right out of the water.

[mbowes80]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are a liberal bastion despite hosting the Republican National Convention.



Ridiculousness. Dynamic cities have excellent pro sports, good recreational opportunities, and superb cultural constitutions. Cleveland scores highly on all three, especially cultural institutions.

Cities lacking world-class cultural institutions, such as Cincinnati, don't understand the attraction that the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Playhouse Square offer to potential employees.

As a graduate of Princeton University, one of the world's very best liberal arts universities (it doesn't even have a business school or offer an undergraduate business degree), it's likely that Bezos values cultural institutions. His wife was a Princeton English major.

Another thing that employees might like? Beaches, boats, and other lakefront attractions.

Only time will tell if Cleveland has a chance at this, but it certainly has at least as good a chance as Cincinasty. (Glad I had a chance to use that pun...)

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

You obviously want attention. Face it, Cincinnati has huge advantages in this decision over Columbus and Cleveland.

My guess is that it's going to go to Boston. Amazon did this big announcement to get a lot of free publicity, but no doubt they've already got it narrowed down to three places at most.

I don't want this to turn into the typical 3-C fight, but can you be specific as to Cincinnati's huge advantages in this case? I think they all have flaws and strengths, and none of them stand out as an obvious choice.


And you're most likely correct. They probably already have a short list of cities they want to go in and are just waiting to hear what the incentives packages will be.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Cincinnati's mayor on CNBC today:
Cincinnati mayor: We'll be very agressive with tax incentives to get Amazon


Cleveland has no logistical advantage over Columbus and certainly not Cincinnati, which has the Prime Air Hub. Amazon plans worldwide cargo hub, 2,700 jobs at CVG

Amazon has been spending billions all over Ohio recently. They spent over a billion in Columbus and I believe they're building more stuff outside of Cleveland. The fact is, they're spending money in many states. This doesn't indicate where the HQ is likely to go. Facebook is going to spend $750 million in the Columbus area. Doesn't mean FB is moving to Columbus.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

I don't want this to turn into the typical 3-C fight, but can you be specific as to Cincinnati's huge advantages in this case? I think they all have flaws and strengths, and none of them stand out as an obvious choice.


And you're most likely correct. They probably already have a short list of cities they want to go in and are just waiting to hear what the incentives packages will be.

The biggest advantages Cincy has over other places for soliciting Amazon:

1. Kroger
2. Macy's
3. P&G

Amazon is looking to move big into grocery, and it's going to need expertise in the industry and the consumer products that support it (who are the biggest players in each? Kroger and P&G respectively).

Macy's might not be as helpful unless they do decide to go ahead and acquire the company for an easy retail footprint. And if they do, it'd be an easy conversion.

Other less tangible reasons include a ton of vacant land in the heart of the basin, all of it which is right along the river, the ability to leverage tax incentives from two states (OH and KY), and they already chose Cincy/CVG for a major air hub valued at roughly half the cost of this new corporate campus.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by Losfrisco

The airport is the same one they used when Pittsburgh's only peers in corporate HQ jobs was NYC and Chicago. If they were cool with transit in Seattle, I don't know why Pittsburgh would be a problem. In its present state, one could argue that Seattle is more reliant on buses than Pittsburgh is (26 miles vs 22 of light rail).

The last few decades have been an aberration for Pittsburgh, not the norm. Historically, Pittsburgh is accustomed to being where Seattle and San Francisco are economically. They fell out of the game but they aren't new to it and have been playing it longer than just about everyone else.

Yeah, but they grew up in Seattle, so not much choice there. They are being more selective this time around, and I just don't see how Pittsburgh competes with many of the other possible candidates. I'm not saying it's a bad city or anything, but it just doesn't seem to have enough of the qualities they're looking for.

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by SWOH

The biggest advantages Cincy has over other places for soliciting Amazon:

1. Kroger
2. Macy's
3. P&G

Amazon is looking to move big into grocery, and it's going to need expertise in the industry and the consumer products that support it (who are the biggest players in each? Kroger and P&G respectively).

Macy's might not be as helpful unless they do decide to go ahead and acquire the company for an easy retail footprint. And if they do, it'd be an easy conversion.

Other less tangible reasons include a ton of vacant land in the heart of the basin, all of it which is right along the river, the ability to leverage tax incentives from two states (OH and KY), and they already chose Cincy/CVG for a major air hub valued at roughly half the cost of this new corporate campus.

Okay, but why are those specific corporate HQs any more important than those in the other 2-Cs? Arguably, Amazon is a retail company at its heart, and I would argue the best retail city is Columbus. I still don't think Columbus has a remote chance at getting it. Also, why would Amazon move to the same city as one of its biggest grocery competitors? I'm not sure Kroger is really looking to provide a lot of insight into the business.

[motorman]

As could be expected, this thread's become just another contest between Ohio's 3-C's, rather than an overall appraisal of Cleveland's chances of winning HQ2-vs-other cities across the nation. My suggestion is that Cleveland advocates turn attention to the "City-vs-City/General-US" forum for a better idea of who the city's real contenders actually are. If one dares to read through all these pages of speculation, it will be discovered that neither Cleveland, Cincinnati nor Columbus are mentioned much at all. There's a reason for this: it's because none of our 3-C's are really serious competition when ranked with the nation's biggest and best cities as a whole. Look at the list and draw your own conclusions.

[SWOH]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

Okay, but why are those specific corporate HQs any more important than those in the other 2-Cs? Arguably, Amazon is a retail company at its heart, and I would argue the best retail city is Columbus. I still don't think Columbus has a remote chance at getting it. Also, why would Amazon move to the same city as one of its biggest grocery competitors? I'm not sure Kroger is really looking to provide a lot of insight into the business.

Sure, thanks for asking.
Amazon is looking to move quickly into grocery. Its main competitor will be Kroger, Wal-Mart (good luck moving to Arkansas), Aldi, possibly Lidl, and Target (which is why Minneapolis might be an interesting choice too).

Of those, Kroger is the strongest player against Amazon. It already leverages an analytics powerhouse that got it to its current position, it has a nearly nationwide network of stores, and it has a supply chain of organic and non-organic goods that beats Whole Foods at every turn.

That's a lot of expertise Amazon doesn't have and is going to need if it really wants to beat Kroger. Otherwise, Kroger will keep doing laps around Whole Foods like it has been. And Simple Truth at the end of the day will continue to be the organic brand of choice for the average consumer, as Kroger continues to tweak it based on the data it gets from its customers.

Columbus is in the wrong kind of retail.
Amazon has already won at clothing / department store goods.
It has already developed the best platform for selling these goods.


Also, what other cities can offer a dual state tax incentive package?

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by motorman

As you mentioned, Cleveland's cultural institutions are indeed formidable, but in no way do they position it way above Cincinnati or Columbus, two cities that field strong assets of their own that can't be overlooked for winning HQ2. However, none of this really matters. In the end, Amazon's list will be winnowed down to just a select few cities so large and arrayed with assets, they blow any of the "3-C's"right out of the water.

Columbus wasn't even on the Washington Post map of eligible cities.

To the extent that Amazon truly desires a more robust mass transit profile, Cincinnati and Columbus, and many other American cities, have disqualified themselves by a decided lack of investment in this attribute.