Amazon's New Headquarters in Sacramento (Los Angeles: 2015, transporting, rent)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Elliott_CA

Sacramento would be a good choice, except for ... the "international airport," which consists of direct flights to Cabo, Guadalara and Mexico City. That's it. Calling Sacto an international airport is something of a joke, to be honest.

Amazon was looking for these specific cities/airports: Seatac (SMF has plenty of non-stops to Seattle); NYC (SMF has non-stops to JFK and Newark on United and JetBlue); Washington-Dulles (SMF has non-stops on United); SFO (SMF has plenty of non-stops to SFO not to mention you can take the train or drive).

International status, think about it, every not that important city in Europe has an "International Airport" because there are so many countries in Europe and they are so close together. If the USA consisted of 12 different counties, like Europe, SMF would have a "ton of International destinations".

What matters is that you have non-stops and direct flight to Major Hubs(Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake, JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Boston, St. Louis, Orlando, Minneapolis) and SMF does really well with that across the US. Nationally, SMF's list of non-stops is growing to non-major hubs as well.

[sacite]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Amazon was looking for these specific cities/airports: Seatac (SMF has plenty of non-stops to Seattle); NYC (SMF has non-stops to JFK and Newark on United and JetBlue); Washington-Dulles (SMF has non-stops on United); SFO (SMF has plenty of non-stops to SFO not to mention you can take the train or drive).

International status, think about it, every not that important city in Europe has an "International Airport" because there are so many countries in Europe and they are so close together. If the USA consisted of 12 different counties, like Europe, SMF would have a "ton of International destinations".

What matters is that you have non-stops and direct flight to Major Hubs(Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake, JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Boston, St. Louis, Orlando, Minneapolis) and SMF does really well with that across the US. Nationally, SMF's list of non-stops is growing to non-major hubs as well.

Ya I have no idea what he was talking about or how it even related to Amazon's stated criteria. I didn't see anything in their release that requested a specific set of international cities that the airport should service. Another plus for Sac should be the access to its airport. There's a straight route to it with very little traffic and it's comparatively much easier to get in and out of compared to airports in other major metros. All of these things matter quite a bit when you are moving inventory.

Why are people constantly so negative about this city?? It seems like the people that hate it have the same attitude about life in general. There are so many opportunities for small and large businesses in Sacramento. it's a great place if you are looking to open a business or expand your business operations.

[2sleepy]

It doesn't matter how the NY times rates the Cities, what matters is how much they are willing to give to Amazon (think 1.3 billion from the State of Nevada for the Reno gigafactory) Tesla pulled the same scam invited bids then let the respondents engage in a bidding war to get the project. I doubt if Sacramento can come up with enough $ and incentives to win out over some of the bigger cities.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by sacite

Ya I have no idea what he was talking about or how it even related to Amazon's stated criteria. I didn't see anything in their release that requested a specific set of international cities that the airport should service. Another plus for Sac should be the access to its airport. There's a straight route to it with very little traffic and it's comparatively much easier to get in and out of compared to airports in other major metros. All of these things matter quite a bit when you are moving inventory.

Why are people constantly so negative about this city?? It seems like the people that hate it have the same attitude about life in general. There are so many opportunities for small and large businesses in Sacramento. it's a great place if you are looking to open a business or expand your business operations.

I hear ya, why not Sacramento. If Amazon specifically wanted another west coast headquarters, and they excluded the Bay because of its high cost of living, Sacramento would be a top candidate.

I definitely see Denver being the #1. If they wanted to focus on the East Coast I see Raleigh as the #1, North Carolina has mountains/recreation like Seattle/Denver, and Raleigh has top Universities nearby. You could say DC is up there with Raleigh but the cost of living is too high in DC. Although DC has high marks because Bezos lives there, along with top talent, and education.

More on SMF's International Airport status: Besides the major Hubs, most airports in the USA do not have a lot of International destinations. Even the major hubs surprisingly do not go to all the major international destinations, SFO, for example, is very limited on non-stops flights to South America, and some Hubs on the east coast are very limited on non-stops to Asia.

[Elliott_CA]

Originally Posted by sacite

Why are people constantly so negative about this city?? It seems like the people that hate it have the same attitude about life in general.

Making an honest and fact-based assessment of Sacramento's chances (slim to none) isn't being negative about Sacramento. It's just reality. OTOH, some of the other comments are just hometown boosterism, which is fine, but Amazon isn't going to buy into it.

Originally Posted by sacite

There are so many opportunities for small and large businesses in Sacramento. it's a great place if you are looking to open a business or expand your business operations.

Yes, that's true. Part of the problem is the relative lack of major corporate presence here. Business attracts business; if A, B and C were to locate here then D and E would follow. Once there's a critical mass of large business then it supports a lower tier of service vendors. That in turn entices more businesses to locate here. The hard part is getting A and B to go it alone and be the first.

[xenxes]

One of the requirements is mass transit and minimal congestion, rules out Sac.

Houston's probably #1 in the running, maybe also Dallas. I'm seeing somewhere in TX.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by xenxes

One of the requirements is mass transit and minimal congestion, rules out Sac.

Houston's probably #1 in the running, maybe also Dallas. I'm seeing somewhere in TX.

Well that definitely rules out any city in TX too.

[WizardOfRadical]

Who cares.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by WizardOfRadical

Who cares.

I've been hearing Culver City is high on the list, not sure how credible it is.

[sacite]

Originally Posted by Elliott_CA

Making an honest and fact-based assessment of Sacramento's chances (slim to none) isn't being negative about Sacramento. It's just reality. OTOH, some of the other comments are just hometown boosterism, which is fine, but Amazon isn't going to buy into it.



Yes, that's true. Part of the problem is the relative lack of major corporate presence here. Business attracts business; if A, B and C were to locate here then D and E would follow. Once there's a critical mass of large business then it supports a lower tier of service vendors. That in turn entices more businesses to locate here. The hard part is getting A and B to go it alone and be the first.

I don't think anyone was suggesting Sac was a lock for this. Most or the posts are realistic on that end. People were just pointing out the logical reasons that it makes sense (and it does). It makes a hell of a lot more sense for Amazon to locate here than say, Boston or LA, where they're going to fight to get to and from the airport. To suggest Sac's International Airport is a "joke" (in so many words) has no real relevance to whether Amazon will chose it. Unless I am wrong and Amazon stipulated a specific set of international cities the airport must service to qualify as a potential site for the Headquarters expansion, I didn't see the relevance of that point. It's just useless negativity.

As to your other point, I agree for the most part. We are really lacking major corporate economic drivers. A couple or even one major corporation such as Amazon would change the entire economic landscape here. Sac is a great place for entrepreneurs due to the abundance of inventory and relatively low cost to do business compared to the bay area, and that is why so many small businesses are flooding in here now. Hopefully we get some of the major corporations here as well to provide some employment opportunities for our area. It would be great for everyone that lives here IMO.