CentrePort Canada | Winnipeg

[Urban recluse]

They are looking at cities with over 1 million people.

[The Jabroni]

I don't think they're looking at only a distribution centre though. I think it's the whole shebang, since they did mention second HQ, which means is predominantly white collar jobs with 50,000 potential employees. Whether it be local or elsewhere, the talent pool would be relatively small, since we aren't meeting any of their requirements at the moment.

Then again, Halifax is interested, as per article, and they're a smaller city. Who knows! Maybe Amazon might be flexible into seeing what's in store.

But I digress. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa are frontrunners at the moment.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

They are looking at cities with over 1 million people.

Winnipeg will be at 1,000,000 people soon enough.

[pegcity]

I would be happy with a Amazon distribution centre in Winnipeg.

[optimusREIM]

I think that so long as you can demonstrate your be a good market they'd consider it. Something like this would be a game changer for the city.

[esquire]

As great as it would be, I have a hard time believing that Amazon wouldn't go to a city with a much deeper well of human resources than Winnipeg. A lot of the specialized talent they need would be available in far greater numbers in places like Philadelphia, DC, Toronto, etc.

[Authentic_City]

^It also seems like Amazon is trying to start a crazy race to the bottom. Asking cities to wow them with their best offers seems like they are looking to extract all manner of concessions and breaks. No doubt, cities across North America will be lining up to hand them the keys to the city. Not sure we can or should compete in this race.

[Urban recluse]

They expect to hire 50,000 people. Winnipeg will not get this.

[Glenn99]

With the current political climate in the US I can't imagine the outrage in Washington if Amazon moved 50,000 jobs to any Canadian city. Trump would lose his mind.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by esquire

As great as it would be, I have a hard time believing that Amazon wouldn't go to a city with a much deeper well of human resources than Winnipeg. A lot of the specialized talent they need would be available in far greater numbers in places like Philadelphia, DC, Toronto, etc.

Wherever this goes it'll be drawing talent to its city, just like it did for Seattle. A city's desirability for prospective employees is a big factor in where Amazon will decide to locate. It's Richard Florida's rise of the creative class on a large scale. Winnipeg has its charms but it's in competition with great cities like Chicago and Philadelphia. If Amazon were to choose a smaller city they're probably more interested in seeing a place with a plan to move and house 50000 new employees than seeing what kind of tax breaks they can score.

The political climate in the states may actually favour Canada. Trump can throw a fit but he ultimately can't do anything to Amazon. When you're a company that deals globally and draws from a global talent pool, locating in a that isn't interested in being open to the rest of the world isn't as appealing. There are other reasons Amazon won't locate in Canada, but I don't see pollitics as the stumbling block it seems to be.

[WildCake]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...tLh673JA%3D%3D

Interesting article by the NY times basically narrowing down possible US cities for the Amazon HQ. They said at the end that if the NY times was able to do this, then Amazon certainly could have done the same. They are suggesting that opening up the competition was a way Amazon could see which cities are more willing to bend over backwards with tax breaks and other benefits for the company to choose them

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by The Jabroni

But I digress. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa are frontrunners at the moment.

First, lets get this out there, this is an office and has zero to do with distribution so the whole argument about shipping advantages of Winnipeg goes off the table at the start.

As Amazon is based on Seattle they are likely looking for HQ2 in the eastern time zone which would take Calgary and Edmonton out of the running in that list. Vancouver would stay in consideration for proximity to Seattle and can't be completely eliminated but will remain on the long shot list.

Ottawa has a relatively higher cost of living due to everything related to the federal government. They also have a bad track record of retaining tech companies (Hummingbird, Corel) which is essentially what HQ2 will be.

The language, cultural and differences in laws in Quebec likely take Montreal out of the running. We are talking a large US company with the first language of their business being English and that is enough to cause added headaches here.

Toronto is definitely the front runner of the Canadian cities. That said, like Montreal the differences between Canadian and US law, especially labour law, make it complicated enough that Tonronto will also be a long shot. There are lots of advantages to keeping HQ2 in the US market.

The other factor likely to come heavily into play is the existing connections via air to other cities. Winnipeg is completely lacking there.

That said, if we built an office complex for Amazon to spec, gave them free property taxes and hydro and some concessions on payroll taxes then maybe Winnipeg could make the long list. Reality is Winnipeg doesn't make sense for Amazon HQ2 and putting in a serious bid would basically require every citizen to be subsidizing Amazon.

[esquire]

Toronto is the only Canadian city that even has an outside shot at this thing... it seems like a cynical exercise on the part of local political and business leaders to suggest that Winnipeg is in the running.

[Biff]

I agree with being almost crazy that Winnipeg is in the competition but to me the old adage that you can't win if you don't play rings true for me here.

I would be disappointed if Winnipeg - Manitoba didn't at least try.

[esquire]

^ Fair enough, I guess the cost of putting in a proposal is pretty minimal compared to the potential rewards. But I think it does show what is expected by the heavy hitters when it comes to selecting an HQ site... a lot of the stuff derided in this town as frills do get noticed by big companies, like bike lanes and good transit.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....516043504_.pdf

[Authentic_City]

^I think the lack of direct air connections to major US cities including Seattle is a deal breaker. But just think, if by some miracle Winnipeg was selected, this would probably create enough traffic to justify a new direct route to Seattle.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

^I think the lack of direct air connections to major US cities including Seattle is a deal breaker. But just think, if by some miracle Winnipeg was selected, this would probably create enough traffic to justify a new direct route to Seattle.

Easily. Even though we don't have a route with them currently, I'm sure Alaska Airlines probably has a binder sitting on someone's desk at their headquarters with information about Winnipeg... they could probably generate a decent amount of business by funneling some west coast bound traffic from YWG to Seattle. Delta is a possibility as well given that they are always attempting to feed their transpacific routes through Seattle.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

^I think the lack of direct air connections to major US cities including Seattle is a deal breaker. But just think, if by some miracle Winnipeg was selected, this would probably create enough traffic to justify a new direct route to Seattle.

The amount of air passenger traffic between Amazon's HQ1 and HQ2 would likely not be sufficient enough to support daily commercial flights on its own but would give a nice boost to otherwise financially viable flights.

As I mentioned previously, Amazon HQ2 is as much a tech company as anything else. They will heavily leverage online meeting technology in place of flights to in-person meetings for the most part. It's how things are done now. That said some of the more senior staff at both locations will be going back and forth but you aren't talking say 50 people in each direction daily.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by CoryB

The amount of air passenger traffic between Amazon's HQ1 and HQ2 would likely not be sufficient enough to support daily commercial flights on its own but would give a nice boost to otherwise financially viable flights.

As I mentioned previously, Amazon HQ2 is as much a tech company as anything else. They will heavily leverage online meeting technology in place of flights to in-person meetings for the most part. It's how things are done now. That said some of the more senior staff at both locations will be going back and forth but you aren't talking say 50 people in each direction daily.

I think it would be somewhat similar to the traffic generated by Great West Life between the Winnipeg and Denver offices, although Amazon is talking 50K employees which is much more than GWL. I think the bigger issue is that the RFP specified proximity to an international airport. And while Richardson is International, it doesn't offer the connections that a larger centre like Toronto could offer. All of this makes the bid by Winnipeg quite a long shot.

[plrh]

Who knows, maybe the decision makers at Amazon are terrible at their jobs? If they screw up really bad Winnipeg has a shot. Lots of people suck at their jobs.