Amazon HQ2
 

Amazon's planning to build a 2nd HQ in North America.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/07/amaz...h-america.html

That sounds like it could be, might be, maybe in the future might sort of be a place like Austin. Right?

You beat me to it. :) That will be a major boost to some lucky city - much bigger than a Tesla gigafactory and Foxconn combined. Austin better step up its game and make a major effort for it. We have a leg up like the article states with some Amazon corporate jobs and that grocery story thing.

Amazon HQ2
 

If Austin was able to lure them, we might get a flagship corporate tower?

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/tech...ers/index.html

No one seems to be using that post office site at the moment . . . .

Austin should definitely be a front-runner for this. We all know that very few cities have the same draw WRT tech talent. And now has a built in advantage with the Whole Foods deal going through.

The question is...where HQ2 could be located in Austin? They're saying that it would be equal to the Seattle HQ. They might not necessarily be looking for the same 8.1 million square feet of space that they have in Seattle, but they surely would be looking for multi-millions of square feet.

Where would that be possible? If it's downtown, that's multiple buildings of giant size.

The Statesman site comes to mind.

You mentioned they might not be looking for 8 million square feet. They are. Here are the details. Essentially, they want it to be an equal to their current HQ in Seattle.

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

The RFP's emphasis on on-site public transportation (specifically mentioning rail or subway lines) would make it difficult for Austin to compete with cities like Denver, Charlotte, Boston, or even Dallas. Depending on how important this is to them, Austin likely lacks the critical infrastructure to support their plans. I also am not sure the city of Austin would be as welcoming as many other cities. I hope I am dead wrong.

Very good points. That's where Austin lacks big. City of Austin dragging it's feet on transportation over the decades catches up with them when opportunities like this come up, which is obviously rare.

Since this is a long term vision, I think Austin would have to convince them they are going to quickly pick up the pace on public transportation in order to have a chance.

All the more reason people should have voted for a complete light rail system like the proposal back in 2000. Not having that is now starting to hurt Austin economically.

One potential option? How about the broadmore development? It's actually on the one rail line we have.

Edit: Or they mention multiple sites is possible. How about downtown innovation district and/or development above the convention center + broadmore site, linked by the red line?

Edit2: heck, throw in the possibility (for phase 3 in 15 years) along the line up in Robinson Ranch.

off topic: I wish the 2000 vote had ended up differently, but it wasn't really a "complete light rail system".

It was a 15 mile MOS and not even the money to build even that. Then a few lines on the map promising at "future expansion", with no clue at how that was ever going to happen (once the initial segment, that you can't afford, is built, its operating costs > buses eat even more of the budget).

They're apparently looking for 8 million square feet, though. That is a HUGE amount of space. The twin towers of the World Trade Center had about that much.

Domain 11 is the largest building so far at the Domain, and it's still only 312,024 square feet according to this. They would need 26 Domain 11s to equal that number. You're talking about creating a skyline that would rival Forth Worth's before you considered raising the building heights to reduce the number of buildings and footprints/impervious coverage.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...s-tallest.html

Only 500,000-1,000,000 sf in phase 1 though.

Actually, maybe I'm misreading that.

" The RFP may contain
multiple real estate sites in more than one jurisdiction, but we do encourage you to submit your best
sites to meet or exceed the needs of our Project described in this RFP."

May mean multiple independent (and mutually exclusive) proposals, not multiple sites combining in one proposal.

If you really wanted downtown, you could feasibly bundle the Courthouse site, the post office, and 600 Guadalupe for a great campus with a ton of sq footage.

That, of course, assumes that neither the 600 Guad nor the Courthouse plan don't already have tenant commitments. A guy can dream, though.

It's gonna take a hefty incentive package, both on the state and local level. Funny they don't mention that in their description of their desired location.

That would be the "business-friendly environment" :)


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

How much could you fit in a big chunk (all?) of the South Shore district?


How about South Shore plus building above the convention center, connected by a pedestrian bridge (also dreaming)?

Yep, I'm all-in on the south shore district. Probably the best, most practical option for something the size they're looking for. Could you imagine the penthouse view that Bezos would have from a campus like that?

I also think that deals this huge come with surprising coattails -- meaning that, improved transit could easily be a price the city of Austin or State of Texas or both are willing to pay for an Amazon HQ and 50k jobs. A phased commitment of that size could feasibly change the tenor of the I-35 planning, could change the city's own perception of its need for transit, etc.

Not that that completely overcomes the obstacles that Austin has, but I don't know that our current problems with Austin are exactly the long term problems Amazon might be considering.

It could be. Here's something from GeekWire:

Six cities Amazon should consider for its second headquarters

The five other cities that GeekWire thinks Amazon should be looking at are Toronto, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Atlanta.

Current poll:

https://s26.postimg.org/mucnf7p15/Poll.jpg

https://twitter.com/geekwire/status/905806524475248641

Oh, heck! Go ahead and crucify me. I suggest that we offer to raze the ACC campus at Highland and invite Amazon to redevelop the entire area to suit their needs. It may not have a lot of transit "options", but it has proximity to major highways and also to our one pathetic rail offering.

It would be awesome if Amazon chose Austin but I'd hold off on getting too excited just yet about the prospect. We still don't really know what their long-term plan is for Whole Foods. Just because it's based here doesn't mean that we would be top choice right out the gate.

Honestly Dallas has a better chance. I know kill me.

I hate to say it but I agree, they have a much better airport and even public transit. Their downtown is booming too in terms of residential.

(we have prettier lakes tho)

I want to play this game.

I'd combine the Southshore and Waller Park Place (and 99 Trinity). You could connect them with a pedestrian/rail bridge for light rail down Riverside to the airport.

I also like Robinson Ranch idea along the Red Line near 45N and Parmer Lane. But I'd prefer we get some tall downtown building out of it. Southshore+WPP is my vote.

No surprise, but Austin is formally submitting.


http://www.512tech.com/technology/ch...45GfsQoGi9FTM/

Browsing around the interwebs, we seem to be making a lot of the opinionators' and columnists' short lists. :)

Yea, but it sounds like they are looking to have some of their development teams relocate to the second HQ. They are more likely to vote for a move to Austin than Dallas.

The Amazon folks may already have a bias towards Austin. But they can't just hand it over without looking around at options first. That wouldn't be responsible business wise. For something this big, it makes sense that they would want to explore incentives and even goosing cities into promising to work on mass transit in/around the new HQ.

Brackenridge Tract? Could that handle the Amazon requirements?

It would be a departure from what city officials want the Brackenridge Tract to become with a focus on health but who knows. I'm sure there could be some changes if it came down to that.

New thought -- buildings above the convention center + 99 Trinity + Waller Creek + that huge parcel across Cesar Chavez from the Fairmont + 4th and Red River and sundry others in that part of the city. The congestion would be unbearable of course, and it would be weird to mix Amazonians AND conventioneers, but . . . at least this is a way I can mentally develop all that gorgeous vacant land.

It seems like it's probably time to move all of this to another thread?


So what's the other perspective? For those cities that have been advanced as our "competition", what do their downtown (or suburban greenfield) options look like? I'm assuming 8 million square feet is a lot of room to try to find in other downtowns as well.

Every Amazon post in the Update and Off Topic threads have been moved to this thread.

It's too early in the process for me to get excited about this yet. But man, this is a huge and interesting discussion across a lot of urban forums and city threads.

You're right, it's everywhere. SO much buzz.

Everything I've read puts 1) Austin as a de facto finalist, even before bids are tallied and 2) Austin thinks of itself as a de facto finalist, even before bids are tallied.

That's dangerous. Pride goeth before a fall, and all that.

This is Hilarious ! It really is like a bid for the olympics !

I was joking that it's like the engagement ceremony from the movie "Coming to America"

I wonder if there are any cities willing to hop on one leg and bark like a dog to get it? :P

Looks like Austin and Texas is going for it.

http://www.512tech.com/technology/ch...45GfsQoGi9FTM/

Sorry I just now saw you already posted the same thing lol

I kind of wonder if it'll be Austin or "Austin."

Space and traffic anywhere near downtown will be difficult, to say the least. They could go east toward COTA where there's lots of land, or even south to the burbs like Dell did in Round Rock.

I think they'd rather pick another city than do something way in the Austin burbs...seems like they are aiming for something in the heart of whatever city they choose, to be an urban campus like the one in Seattle. They want to be part of the city...they even have limited food options at their Seattle HQ in order to force their employees to venture out in the city for lunch.

" A Big Dog" Woof woof woof..... !!!! LOL!

Austin would seem to fit like a glove for this new headquarters. Vibrant growing tech city in a state with no income tax. Then consider is has social similarities to Seattle as well as an onslaught of cloud computing companies littered on "silicon hill" who Amazon likely does plenty of business with considering it's a huge facet of their operations. You've got The University of Texas a stones throw away, where Amazon would surely sink their line into to scoop up undergrads and MBAs from McCombs and the highly ranked computer science program. Entertainment for employees is bustling - good food, Colorado river, 6th street, 2nd street, Rainey, etc. There's no shortage of high end residential for employees to live in. Oh and I'd say Whole Foods being headquartered here is another big pro. Remember, Amazon bought Whole Foods not because they're interested in the grocery business. They wanted consumer data but these are also their ideas of distribution centers for their drones. I'd expect Austin to be the headquarters facilitating those operations. I'd say the downside is transportation but I think the Airport is large enough to suffice their needs and is adding more and more destinations (such as the non-stop flight to London) and the whole international terminal.

Statesmen site in the South Shore District is an obvious site but I think you could lease plenty of 600 Guadalupe and finance your own tower(s) on the post office site (skybridge anyone?) and then the old Travis County block could offer more space for a tower and green space (think extension of Republic Square Park).

I see many, many reasons for Austin to get this bid.

My guess is they already know where they want to be but they are looking to make cities completive about landing them.... thereby forcing the city of choice to make bigger concessions up front than anyone may have in a non competitive situation.

But that's just a guess! ;-)

https://i.imgur.com/fedu9kn.png
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/cities...judges-cities/

I noticed that one of those dots is representing Small Springs, Wyoming, Pop 4. They probably have lots of available land for an 8 million sq ft campus.

One of those dots will get it.

So far Southshore, Brackenridge and Broadmoor have been mentioned as possible campus sites. WCC bought the 156 acre 3M campus this summer, and it has 1,000,000 sq ft of office space already built. I haven't heard of any development plans for the site once 3M moves to their new Parmer location.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...-large-3m.html