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They are looking for 500,000 sq ft of existing space with the potential to build up to 8 million. Does Schuylkill Yards have 500,000 sq ft of existing space?
What city has just 500,000 square feet of existing office space just lying around? If any city did, it would have a horrible real estate market.
First and second tower in Schuylkill Yards could easily be completed by 2020. Brandywine (the developer) is getting approvals from the city right now for the first two towers. These two towers alone, 3003 JFK and 3025 JFK, will be over 2.5M square feet of office space. If Amazon needed space earlier than that, they can take up 286,000 square feet of space in 3001 Market. They could take up another 200,000 square feet of space in 3020 Market, which is an existing 6-story office building that will eventually be demolished and replaced by a 786,000 square foot building. Any additional space needs before the first two towers are completed, could probably be carved out of nearby Cira Centre or FMC Tower.
I don't see this being on the coasts, and we already can rule out West Coast due to the original headquarters being in Seattle. Bezos may do something really random choose a place like Albuquerque, but who knows? If I had to guess one, I'm going to go with Charlotte, NC (I do not consider to be on the coast as its a few hundred miles inland).
I was hopeful that my city would try to go for it and submit a proposal. I just found out that our mayor says we will indeed be submitting a proposal, and he's leveraging and highlighting the fact that Jeff Bezos was born and lived in Albuquerque as a small child:
Quote:
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said his administration plans to pitch the metropolitan area as the perfect new home for Amazon.
Among the metro area’s virtues are available land that is affordable, a reliable power grid, a workforce that has shown it can handle large construction projects and an environment that doesn’t have “earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis,” Berry said.
But Albuquerque has something no other city can claim: Bezos was born here.
“Jeff, come home,” Berry said. “We’d love to have you.”
I don't know how realistic a proposition it is, but no city has ever been a great success without ambition and at least trying for things like this.
Another interesting fact is that Microsoft got its start here in Albuquerque when Bill Gates and Paul Allen lived here.
Facebook is also building a huge data center in the suburb of Los Lunas just south of Albuquerque.
We also still have Intel, even if its workforce and operations here have been greatly reduced.
Our innovation center known as Innovate ABQ just completed construction of its first building downtown. It is a collaboration between our local governments, the state and UNM. It houses offices and space for among others, the Air Force Research Labaratory, and our local community college's high tech fabrication operation known as the CNM Fuse Makerspace.
There is also all the spinoff activity from Sandia National Labs and successful, homegrown startups like Lavu. Los Alamos National Lab is also within our CSA. And Santa Fe is close-by and connected to Albuquerque via the Rail Runner commuter train. We are also almost done building our new BRT line which is designed to the standards of and may become the nation's first Gold-rated BRT line.
We can leverage and highlight all of these positives in our proposal.
I think Nashville gets it. Hottest mid-sized city in America right now, relatively centrally located, no state income tax. I just have a feeling...
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