[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Pratt & Whitney has opened its new Engineering Center in East Hartford. The Monmouth building will house 1,750 employees. What I found most interesting though is that the company has hired 1,600 new employees here in Connecticut with plans to add 8,000 more in the next 20 years. That is great number. Jay

Pratt & Whitney Opens New Engineering Headquarters In East Hartford - Hartford Courant

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

It's important because bleeding edge ops is very high tech. You're not going to get the MIT/Cal Tech rocket scientist who does all the innovation in that area to move to some SE low cost hell hole like Memphis when all the non-Amazon jobs are in the high COL regions.

There's "office jobs" that are paper pushing with mostly repetitive task work and "office jobs" that create intellectual property. Amazon cares about the latter. They're competing against Google, Oracle, and Microsoft for talent.

I’m in agreement with you. Which is why I don’t think they’ll go southeast.

[JGBigGreen]

It may be hard to get them to go to Memphis but I doubt it would be hard at all for Amazon to attract employees to Atlanta. Not to mention that Georgia Tech is a "home grown" source of world class tech/engineering/computer science graduates and Atlanta is pretty competitive.

Originally Posted by Stylo

I’m in agreement with you. Which is why I don’t think they’ll go southeast.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by JGBigGreen

It may be hard to get them to go to Memphis but I doubt it would be hard at all for Amazon to attract employees to Atlanta. Not to mention that Georgia Tech is a "home grown" source of world class tech/engineering/computer science graduates and Atlanta is pretty competitive.

Yes, I’ve said before ATL is the only city in the SE that has a shot.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by JGBigGreen

It may be hard to get them to go to Memphis but I doubt it would be hard at all for Amazon to attract employees to Atlanta. Not to mention that Georgia Tech is a "home grown" source of world class tech/engineering/computer science graduates and Atlanta is pretty competitive.

Huh? I've been to Atlanta. A lot. The tech jobs are in the northeastern suburbs a jillion miles outside of the city. The airport is on the south side of the city and it has the usual rush hour traffic jam with minimal railed public transportation options so you can't easily get from that tech office building in the northern suburbs to ATL to catch a 5pm flight. There isn't anything particularly redeeming about downtown Atlanta. It's kind of like a big Hartford where everybody flees to the suburbs at 5pm. You can't put Amazon in the urban core because nobody wants to live there and the transportation is lousy. If you put it in a huge suburban office park north/northeast of the city, it's like all the other places Amazon doesn't want to go because it wants to attract the kind of talent that doesn't want to live in gated suburban communities where everything is done by automobile.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Huh? I've been to Atlanta. A lot. The tech jobs are in the northeastern suburbs a jillion miles outside of the city. The airport is on the south side of the city and it has the usual rush hour traffic jam with minimal railed public transportation options so you can't easily get from that tech office building in the northern suburbs to ATL to catch a 5pm flight. There isn't anything particularly redeeming about downtown Atlanta. It's kind of like a big Hartford where everybody flees to the suburbs at 5pm. You can't put Amazon in the urban core because nobody wants to live there and the transportation is lousy. If you put it in a huge suburban office park north/northeast of the city, it's like all the other places Amazon doesn't want to go because it wants to attract the kind of talent that doesn't want to live in gated suburban communities where everything is done by automobile.

I agree. And Georgia politics don't mesh well with Amazon's.

Interestingly I just saw a ranking of locations and was shocked to see Hartford ranked No. 3. I could maybe see Stamford but Hartford??? Still it is located half way between Boston and New York, has a wealth of potential employees and has a decent culture for a small city. I don't think there are any existing empty buildings large enough for their first building though. Will see. Jay

[JGBigGreen]

I've lived in Atlanta. While MARTA does not have the best rail system by any stretch of the imagination it is quite feasible to use it from the northern suburbs to the airport- in fact I did it many, many times when I lived there. Many companies have shuttles to the North Springs station and for those that don't it is not at all difficult to drive and park there to take the train to Hartsfield. Further, you are ignoring the large and growing tech presence in mid-town and in Buckhead- both of which are very convenient to the airport. There is also a large and expanding number of housing options in the city that would appeal to the type of workers Amazon will attract. Atlantic Station, Buckhead, Virginia Highlands. All great places that would appeal to recent grads and older workers. (Schools suck but there are good options for private schools which this demographic can afford.)

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I agree. And Georgia politics don't mesh well with Amazon's.

Interestingly I just saw a ranking of locations and was shocked to see Hartford ranked No. 3. I could maybe see Stamford but Hartford??? Still it is located half way between Boston and New York, has a wealth of potential employees and has a decent culture for a small city. I don't think there are any existing empty buildings large enough for their first building though. Will see. Jay

You probably know it already, but there's a lot of open land around BDL. A lot of the old tobacco farms have sold off land around Day Hill Rd during the last 10 years. There's also horse farms north of BDL that people may be willing to sell.

Hartford county population is approx 900k, has easy access to an airport (BDL), public transportation is already in place, and being expanded, nearly all the towns in the area have good schools.

Amazon would also be drawing employees from Southern Mass, which would make the population pool 1 million+.

If Amazon really did locate here, housing prices will go thru the roof, which is good for current owners, but not new owners.

I could see Hartford being top 20 on the list, but #3 seems too high.

[RunD1987]

Have a feeling it's going to be Austin Texas or just Texas in general for Amazon's HQ. Be cool if they did an East Coast and West Coast thing with the HQ's.

Only places can see them picking is Chicago, Boston, NYC, or Atlanta. I think it be cool if they picked a City that has potential and help it develop. Be cool to see what Amazon's HQ2 could do for the Hartford area.

[Lincolnian]

Windsor would be a good location. All the land needed is there within a couple of miles of the airport. They could even have their own terminal. Additionally, Amtrak is upgrading the train line which will eventually improve connections to Boston and NYC. A light rail line could be revisited between Hartford and Bradley with an Amazon stop possible.