Amazon is looking for a second HQ. Why not, Pittsburgh? (York: property, companies)

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by gladhands

LOL You’ll really just hop on Al Gore’s internet and type anything that pops into your head.

No content from you. As usual.

[Goinback2011]

Apparently, Arlington, Texas just removed itself from the top 20 list. Interesting timing.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Apparently, Arlington, Texas just removed itself from the top 20 list. Interesting timing.

Arlington wasn't really on the Top 20, it was one of the potential sites for Dallas's bid. Amazon basically let it be known that if they choose Texas, they're going with an urban site in Dallas or Austin not the suburbs.

Similarly, we have heard through unofficial channels that Amazon when they visited was not interested in land by the airport or the Carrie Furnace site, but was very intrigued by the Strip District.

They want an urban campus, although maybe they'll make an exception for the DC suburbs.

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Arlington wasn't really on the Top 20, it was one of the potential sites for Dallas's bid. Amazon basically let it be known that if they choose Texas, they're going with an urban site in Dallas or Austin not the suburbs.

Similarly, we have heard through unofficial channels that Amazon when they visited was not interested in land by the airport or the Carrie Furnace site, but was very intrigued by the Strip District.

They want an urban campus, although maybe they'll make an exception for the DC suburbs.

Ah, they reported it on the local news at noon as one of the 20 finalists.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Ah, they reported it on the local news at noon as one of the 20 finalists.

Yeah, no, this is similar to how people were initially reporting Somerville, MA as the "21st" HQ2 location. Amazon was lumping some potential suburban locations in with their core cities. Not all of course - see Newark and the DC suburbs. The difference in those cases seems to be that they're not in the same states as NYC or DC, meaning there's an entirely different potential tax structure/set of incentives. But if the potential suburban site is in the same state as the core city, Amazon just lumped them together for public consumption.

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Arlington wasn't really on the Top 20, it was one of the potential sites for Dallas's bid. Amazon basically let it be known that if they choose Texas, they're going with an urban site in Dallas or Austin not the suburbs.

Similarly, we have heard through unofficial channels that Amazon when they visited was not interested in land by the airport or the Carrie Furnace site, but was very intrigued by the Strip District.

They want an urban campus, although maybe they'll make an exception for the DC suburbs.

that statement doesn't make sense. it they choose a suburb, they obviously didn't only want an urban campus. as far as i know urban wasn't a preference.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

City and County officials need to have some good answers to questions about dealing with the opiod problem (which is a major contributor to Seattle's homeless problem), and how housing will be funded for the hapless low income urban population.

Seattle's approach to the opiod problem, essentially enabling addicts to continue their addiction, shouldn't be one of Pittsburgh's solutions, or Amazon will walk.

Amazon would base a huge decision on how Peduto handles the opiod problem?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Paul2421

[/b]
that statement doesn't make sense. it they choose a suburb, they obviously didn't only want an urban
campus. as far as i know urban wasn't a preference.

They accepted bids which included potential sites in both urban and suburban locations. But the rejection of Arlington was specifically due to not being an urban location. Let me quote from the Pittsburgh Business Times article here (readable in incognito mode).

“But long story short, just as they had originally indicated, they are probably looking for a more traditional downtown environment that has a fairly well-developed transit system. That was probably our biggest shortcoming, which we knew.”

And, a bit further down...

Dallas and Austin are two of the 20 metro areas Amazon has narrowed its site selection to so far. There are likely multiple potential sites within each metro area. An estimated three dozen were pitched in the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth area alone.

So again, the "20 finalists" were basically a group of different finalists lumped together by MSA (except for DC and the NYC metro, which they chopped up by state). Within those finalist MSAs, Amazon was considering both urban and suburban corporate campus locations. But it appears to be leaning heavily towards an urban corporate campus.

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by eschaton

They accepted bids which included potential sites in both urban and suburban locations. But the rejection of Arlington was specifically due to not being an urban location. Let me quote from the Pittsburgh Business Times article here (readable in incognito mode).



And, a bit further down...



So again, the "20 finalists" were basically a group of different finalists lumped together by MSA (except for DC and the NYC metro, which they chopped up by state). Within those finalist MSAs, Amazon was considering both urban and suburban corporate campus locations. But it appears to be leaning heavily towards an urban corporate campus.

i understand the source, but this is a third party and the use of "probably" infers speculation. but yes, an urban location does make sense. says nothing of amazons preference though.

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Amazon would base a huge decision on how Peduto handles the opiod problem?

Read the Seattle Times about their homeless problem. The city council there is taxing Amazon $250+ PER employee per year to fund homeless "services". They call it the "head tax ". This would include free needles for addicts and other insanity. They've taken over the city's parks with encampanents.

The city has addicts moving there from the Rust Belt like ants to a picnic. One tent near the space needle is called the Homeless Mansion and is full of homeless from West Virginia.

Multiply $250 * 40k employees. Bezos is a little ticked off.