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Wherever it is, it's likely been decided already. This is a big gas game to low-ball the cities into concessions. It's going to city x.....but if you're really going to give me $8B...maybe I'll play....or maybe just tell the target city this is what they need to match.
With those employee comp numbers, they're not looking for distribution (as those facilities pay nothing) but need a larger talent pool for engineering. They'll need to be nearby schools that would transfer to the target and feed them. As the city has to be above 1,000,000 people, we've got a short list (from largest to smallest).
Mexico City - No idea on the education system quality, but it would make sense to have an HQ for Latin American Expansion.
New York City - Physical place for a campus would be tough to come by. Lots of competition for talent.
Los Angeles - No Seattle based company is going to move TO LA
Toronto - I'd put this as my #1 pick. They've developed software for a long time and have long fed Silicon Valley it's talent....lots of which would rather work at home.
Chicago - The city's too broke to realistically make an offer, which is too bad. It could draw a lot of talent from Michigan and Indiana to accentuate the great schools there. It's my #2.
Houston - Too humid for servers
Havana - What's a server?
Montreal - Love the city, but it's not a financial, distribution or engineering hub.
Phoenix - Possibly...it's got space and is relatively inexpensive.
Philadelphia - I don't know enough about the city but I have my doubts.
San Antonio - Doubtful that it could draw away Austin's engineering
San Diego - Cool place, but it's not going to happen.
Dallas - Short hop to Austin makes this #3
Tijuana - I mean, it's on the list, right? Obviously execs on hookers and blow won't be an issue. Plus it's far enough south to allow for Bezos's space adventures...
San Jose - They're advertising $100K jobs as a good thing, so nobody's going to be interested in their pay cut.
While it doesn't have enough people, wouldn't Detroit be an interesting choice?
A second HQ city for North America will most likely be in the eastern time zone to optimize and balance corporate and partner coverage. (No way they go south of USA border - ramping up that HC in non English speaking country would be fraught with all manner of issues).
As much as Corporations say they are open to 'all options' the vast majority of real estate decisions are based on proximity to the CEO.
Jeff Bezos has places in NYC and the DC area (he is owner of Washington Post) besides Seattle
They want a city with an MSA > 1m and an established transit infrastructure, big enough to be urban walkable diverse and near a large population of educated and educational institutions churning out advanced STEM degrees.
I have difficult time believing the employee number projections and timeline. They consider as much by asking for what, 'claw back' terms for any Economic Development incentives / subsidies provided the by municipality to be included in the RFP - good due diligence on their part.
Whatever city gets "AMZN HQ2" will definitely reap excellent multiplier effects to their economy. Even if HQ2 is half the size of Seattle that's more than $12 billion in payroll!
Some cities have large sites that lend themselves to 'campus' development but when you read the RFP it sounds like they want Urban . Pedestrian friendly, walkable dynamic, diverse downtown setting which many of these one big 100 acre greenfield sites will have to 'design' it into on an existing transit arterial or spur. Definitely will be interesting to see how much consideration is given to other long term trends and the type of tech company (other lines of business) Bezos and team foresee themselves being.
And to Artillery's apt point, this type of exercise at this scale is used to play off the incentives game on each competing metro. Our area has seen this frequently with mfg facilties.
Wherever it is, it's likely been decided already. This is a big gas game to low-ball the cities into concessions. It's going to city x.....but if you're really going to give me $8B...maybe I'll play....or maybe just tell the target city this is what they need to match.
With those employee comp numbers, they're not looking for distribution (as those facilities pay nothing) but need a larger talent pool for engineering. They'll need to be nearby schools that would transfer to the target and feed them. As the city has to be above 1,000,000 people, we've got a short list (from largest to smallest).
Mexico City - No idea on the education system quality, but it would make sense to have an HQ for Latin American Expansion.
New York City - Physical place for a campus would be tough to come by. Lots of competition for talent.
Los Angeles - No Seattle based company is going to move TO LA
Toronto - I'd put this as my #1 pick. They've developed software for a long time and have long fed Silicon Valley it's talent....lots of which would rather work at home.
Chicago - The city's too broke to realistically make an offer, which is too bad. It could draw a lot of talent from Michigan and Indiana to accentuate the great schools there. It's my #2.
Houston - Too humid for servers
Havana - What's a server?
Montreal - Love the city, but it's not a financial, distribution or engineering hub.
Phoenix - Possibly...it's got space and is relatively inexpensive.
Philadelphia - I don't know enough about the city but I have my doubts.
San Antonio - Doubtful that it could draw away Austin's engineering
San Diego - Cool place, but it's not going to happen.
Dallas - Short hop to Austin makes this #3
Tijuana - I mean, it's on the list, right? Obviously execs on hookers and blow won't be an issue. Plus it's far enough south to allow for Bezos's space adventures...
San Jose - They're advertising $100K jobs as a good thing, so nobody's going to be interested in their pay cut.
While it doesn't have enough people, wouldn't Detroit be an interesting choice?
Metro Detroit is 4.3 million people and a top 15 msa in the United States. It has access access to an international airport, the university of Michigan, a hub of car companies racing towards driverless cars (automation ally is full of some of the most highly educated engineering talent in the world) the Detroit pistons and Detroit red wings are opening a new billion dollar palace with tons of new downtown condo development.
Dan Gilbert, who's one of the people responsible for detroits recent rapid improvement has already put together a team to get a bid together. If they secure Amazon, it could be the final tipping point in a shocking revitalization.
Here is a new one to toss out, somewhere in the Greater Cincinnati area. Wilmington, OH lost DHL to CVG and there is a large distribution center begging for attention
PITTSBURGH. Super smart engineers from Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University. Several nearby smaller colleges. A big beautiful international airport that is underutilized. Proximity to NYC and DC. Reasonable housing. Geographically beautiful with lots of bike trails and outdoor activities. Three Rivers. And of course fabulous sports -- Steelers, Penguins, Pirates.
Hope it doesn't come anywhere near us. States and cities need to quite the tax breaks for mega corps to relocate. Too much impact in the local infrastructure to meet their demands and the local residents, meaning taxpayers, wind up subsidizing the corporate HQ. Wherever they locate, they need to pull their full weight, not pass it along to taxpayers.
Wherever it is, it's likely been decided already. This is a big gas game to low-ball the cities into concessions. It's going to city x.....but if you're really going to give me $8B...maybe I'll play....or maybe just tell the target city this is what they need to match.
With those employee comp numbers, they're not looking for distribution (as those facilities pay nothing) but need a larger talent pool for engineering. They'll need to be nearby schools that would transfer to the target and feed them. As the city has to be above 1,000,000 people, we've got a short list (from largest to smallest).
Mexico City - No idea on the education system quality, but it would make sense to have an HQ for Latin American Expansion.
New York City - Physical place for a campus would be tough to come by. Lots of competition for talent.
Los Angeles - No Seattle based company is going to move TO LA
Toronto - I'd put this as my #1 pick. They've developed software for a long time and have long fed Silicon Valley it's talent....lots of which would rather work at home.
Chicago - The city's too broke to realistically make an offer, which is too bad. It could draw a lot of talent from Michigan and Indiana to accentuate the great schools there. It's my #2.
Houston - Too humid for servers
Havana - What's a server?
Montreal - Love the city, but it's not a financial, distribution or engineering hub.
Phoenix - Possibly...it's got space and is relatively inexpensive.
Philadelphia - I don't know enough about the city but I have my doubts.
San Antonio - Doubtful that it could draw away Austin's engineering
San Diego - Cool place, but it's not going to happen.
Dallas - Short hop to Austin makes this #3
Tijuana - I mean, it's on the list, right? Obviously execs on hookers and blow won't be an issue. Plus it's far enough south to allow for Bezos's space adventures...
San Jose - They're advertising $100K jobs as a good thing, so nobody's going to be interested in their pay cut.
While it doesn't have enough people, wouldn't Detroit be an interesting choice?
Amazon is looking for a metro area of more than a million people. The city can be any size. That brings a lot more metro areas into consideration, such as Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St Louis, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, etc.
My opinion is that if they choose the East Coast, it will either be in the suburbs of Philadelphia or the suburbs of Baltimore, even though PA is a high tax state. Either the northwestern suburbs of Philly or the northwestern/western suburbs of Baltimore would be ideal. NYC metro can forget it because the cost of living is too high to attract people they make job offers to. Pittsburgh and Cleveland would both be good choices if the high tax thieves that govern those areas can get it together and make offers.
Many cities are making offers, but I believe those are all in vain because I think Amazon/Bezos want a campus in the suburbs, with public transportation into the city and plenty of parking nearby. Doing business is always cheaper in the suburbs, and the techies know it, even though they pretend to believe all that global warming and environmental stuff.
Below are a couple of CNBC articles on the subject. Their writers sure are clueless. I guess cluelessness is a trademark of CNBC.
I would be surprised if it wasn't in the Boston area. Seattle is a liberal city as is Boston and also a seaport as is Seattle. To attract the right employees or to have present ones relocate it would be in his best interest to locate another HQ in an area that affords the same comfort and entertainment as Seattle does..recreational wise. Bike riding, sailing, climbing, is as easily accessible in Boston as it is in Seattle. Plus Boston has numerous Ivy league schools to attract recent graduates.
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