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It typically takes some time. But I don't think that all 20 contenders are serious. Jeff Bezos owns a home and the Washington Post in DC, probably going to get it.
I never got the house argument.
I'm not saying DC or NOVA won't "win the prize", but I think place of residence would factor very little, when you are the richest Homo sapiens sapiens in the Milky Way galaxy and can buy entire towns if you like, and Bezos also has houses in Manhattan, Beverley Hills, Van Horn, TX and Seattle, so I guess LA, NYC, and Texas are going to get HQ2 as well!
I'm not saying DC or NOVA won't "win the prize", but I think place of residence would factor very little, when you are the richest Homo sapiens sapiens in the Milky Way galaxy and can buy entire towns if you like, and Bezos also has houses in NYC, Beverley Hills and Seattle, so I guess LA and NYC are going to get HQ2 as well!
I agree. Bezos is a capitalist emperor. Playing the devil’s advocate here, but Bezos already has a presence in the PNW, SoCal (entertainment) the South (Austin, Whole Foods) and the East Coast (DC, WaPo). Now he just needs a citadel in the Midwest and Intermountain West.
I'm not saying DC or NOVA won't "win the prize", but I think place of residence would factor very little, when you are the richest Homo sapiens sapiens in the Milky Way galaxy and can buy entire towns if you like, and Bezos also has houses in Manhattan, Beverley Hills, Van Horn, TX and Seattle, so I guess LA, NYC, and Texas are going to get HQ2 as well!
I think the point of that particular argument isn't that he wants to be near his house, but that it's a clue to what city Bezos likes. In other words, he chose a house where he wants to be.
FWIW, though, I think the house argument is another one of those things we're all starting to read too much into.
Tysons and Reston are both outside the Beltway and continue to draw corporate relocation and expansion all the time so apparently many companies don't seem to care or think that they are poorly planned.
Well said.
In addition, I don't think the suburban contenders are any more poorly planned than the urban ones. FWIW, I lived near the Reston/Herndon site for a couple of decades, and I think the planning in that area has been pretty good, especially now that money is being spent and some of the plans can finally come to fruition.
I'm not saying DC or NOVA won't "win the prize", but I think place of residence would factor very little, when you are the richest Homo sapiens sapiens in the Milky Way galaxy and can buy entire towns if you like, and Bezos also has houses in Manhattan, Beverley Hills, Van Horn, TX and Seattle, so I guess LA, NYC, and Texas are going to get HQ2 as well!
What a ridiculous comment. I can't believe you can't get it. People want to place their business someplace they want to live.
What a ridiculous comment. I can't believe you can't get it. People want to place their business someplace they want to live.
The guy has 5 houses/homes/mansions/compounds, so I assume he likes living in all of them, so what makes the DC one so special as compared to the other 4; in fact, I think that property is the one he has owned the shortest about of time?
I can think of about a dozen other more important reasons to move HQ2 to DC/NOVA other than the house!
Don't get me wrong, when and if DC/NOVA is picked, everyone will immediately say, see it was because he had a house there.
Logicist would do better to keep to this list he wrote below. With a big public company where the CEO is required to (and does) act in the best interest of #2, #3 tends to be less important.
"1. Can you find, attract and retain talent there
2. Is it a favorable location for the operation of your business
3. Do you like to live there"
Logicist would do better to keep to this list he wrote below. With a big public company where the CEO is required to (and does) act in the best interest of #2, #3 tends to be less important.
"1. Can you find, attract and retain talent there
2. Is it a favorable location for the operation of your business
3. Do you like to live there"
I totally agree. This is also why I suspect one of the suburban locations might win out. Even though people might like to work in a downtown area, the needs for the operation of the business have to come first and foremost. A suburban campus is more adaptable to a lot of different needs, including security needs and transportation needs. And theydon't have to worry about going to a "cool" area. Wherever they go will become a cool area, and all the cool businesses will come to them. And people could still opt to live in the city, even if the HQ2 campus was in a suburb.
That's why I think an urban location is more likely, or at least suburban with good transit.
Much of this depends on whether they want a Seattle-opposite or a Seattle-equivalent. Downtown Seattle is far more transit/walking-oriented than all but a few of the potential locations. Amazon's current Seattle tower projects average about 1 parking space per 7 workers. They're doing very well attracting 20-somethings who want to live nearby. But will HQ2 try to be more attractive to mid-career people who want houses and might be more likely to drive? I suspect trying to appeal to both.
An urban campus can be immensely adaptable. In a neighborhood with enough capacity, you can add or subtract buildings with relative ease. In a downtown or downtown-edge, they can also lease existing spaces in far less time. They've added dozens of buildings at HQ1 that way. One of the key reasons for HQ2 (guessing) is that Seattle is filling up more, and going from 14 msf to 22, or maybe 25+ eventually, would get progressively more difficult and expensive.
The ability to recruit top people is immensely important. I'll say it again: locals are only somewhat important, and mostly for the rank-and-file. For many positions, the goal has to be getting the best people in the world. Since HQ1 is good at attracting 20-somethings, including large numbers from Asia, maybe HQ2 needs to be good at other demographics.
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