Does Fairfax County want new Amazon HQ2 for Tysons? (Richmond: rental, lofts)

[LuvVA]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

What?

You do understand that Ashburn/Leesburg/Chantilly etc is not where Amazon will be pulling the majority of their employees from right? They will be coming from DC / Arlington / Maryland, and yes some from Fairfax. Putting it all the way out in Dulles, is going to make it far less likely for people to take metro to it because many will have to go from one end of the line to the other end of the line. This will increase traffic. It would have been better to put it in Tysons/Arlington/DC or Silver Spring/Bethesda. That or remove it from the area all together and put it in Richmond or Baltimore.

What? Why do you think it will pull people from DC/Arlington/MD? Why not from places I said?

Also, even if they come from DC/Arlington, its reverse traffic for them, right?

If HQ2 comes to the places you mentioned, its going to increase traffic exponentially.

[Middlin]

The assumption is that only young and/or urban minded individuals will be hired by Amazon and of course they wouldn't want to live in the suburbs.

[LuvVA]

Originally Posted by Middlin

The assumption is that only young and/or urban minded individuals will be hired by Amazon and of course they wouldn't want to live in the suburbs.

You are right. But if you take any IT project, how many such young people do you see? May be 15-20% and all the remaining are older, most with family/kids etc. They prefer to live in suburbs. I am talking about them.

[destinedtodave]

Originally Posted by kevinm

Indian tech workers can come to Ohio just as easily as they can come to Virginia. You don't think these jobs will be going to Americans do you?

I don't think it's that simplistic. Yes, there will be many H1B workers, but also thousands of US employees as well. Also, if Amazon could solely rely on H1B, they would uproot the Seattle campus and dump it in Indiana. Or maybe in India, direct at tbe source.

[lchoro]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

What?

You do understand that Ashburn/Leesburg/Chantilly etc is not where Amazon will be pulling the majority of their employees from right? They will be coming from DC / Arlington / Maryland, and yes some from Fairfax. Putting it all the way out in Dulles, is going to make it far less likely for people to take metro to it because many will have to go from one end of the line to the other end of the line. This will increase traffic. It would have been better to put it in Tysons/Arlington/DC or Silver Spring/Bethesda. That or remove it from the area all together and put it in Richmond or Baltimore.

There are several new towns going up near the proposed site. Aldie, Brambleton, Waterside, Kincora, etc.

All site options increase road traffic. The Metro is not designed to carry the maximum number of people since it essentially mirrors the star network layout of the interstate highway system centered on DC. There is a limited number of people it can serve because most people don't drive in the direction towards DC. High-density in Tysons or Dulles means the sprawl goes farther out west and existing roads get more clogged. The solution is to put more residential space at the Arlington, Falls Church, and Tysons stations.

[Deeman804]

Originally Posted by LuvVA

You are right. But if you take any IT project, how many such young people do you see? May be 15-20% and all the remaining are older, most with family/kids etc. They prefer to live in suburbs. I am talking about them.

What IT projects have you been on? In the rest of the world that resides outside of the beltway, Millennial and young Gen-Xers are the majority of the population at tech companies. The average age at Amazon is 31 and I doubt they are rushing to change that. People in that age group PREFER an urban environment and their families prefer the faux-urban suburbs (think Reston, Mosaic, Rockville etc.) mostly due to price and schools but not lifestyle.

[paytonc]

Apparently, Amazon executives wanted to build a suburban campus a la Microsoft, but it was overruled by Bezos himself. Post article:

“Jeff said the type of employees we want to hire and retain will want to live in an urban environment. They are going to want to work, live and play in the urban core,” [John] Schoettler [Amazon VP for global real estate] said... “We could have gone to the suburbs, and we could have built a campus, and we would have had an entry gate where everybody would come and go so you would be very inward- looking and very exclusive,” Schoettler said, “as opposed to being in a very urban environment where you have to look outward, so you’re very inclusive, and everyone is your neighbor — and everyone is welcome.”

[Joke Insurance]

Potential sites in the DC-Baltimore region where Amazon HQ could set up shop: https://www.bizjournals.com/washingt...n-the-d-c.html

And here are four sites inside Washington DC where Amazon HQ2 could set up shop: https://dc.curbed.com/2017/10/16/164...arters-dc-shaw

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by destinedtodave

I don't think it's that simplistic. Yes, there will be many H1B workers, but also thousands of US employees as well. Also, if Amazon could solely rely on H1B, they would uproot the Seattle campus and dump it in Indiana. Or maybe in India, direct at tbe source.

Indiana and India do not have the amenities that Seattle does and I feel that is important to the executives. I mean people from India do not want to live in India so that should tell you something...

[sprklcl]

Be careful what you wish for. With the area's low unemployment rate, where are workers going to come from but from outside the DMV. Congestion/traffic will increase means more time spent commuting (not holding hope that still see yet unreliable Metrorail to help), rents will increase, and for home owners property taxes will increase as property values increase. Great if you are a house flipper like those on the HGTV channel, not so much so if you are a longer term resident, as more time out of one's day and more money out of one's pocketbook. If Amazon HQ2 does end up landing somewhere in the DMV, hopefully not all 50,000 workers will come in one year and instead are spread out coming over several years, so the market can better, though still not great, absorb the increases.