[LouisVanDerWright]

The other problem is timeline. You are talking about creating an entire city basically on top of an active railyard. None of those buildings in Philly are under construction and I'm not even sure if they've finished all planning and approvals. Meanwhile the Post Office is chugging along with their renovation and will probably have half a million square feet ready sometime next year, well before Amazons 2019 requirement. Sure they could try to find 500k SF somewhere else in central Philly in the meantime, but doesn't that kinda defeat the point?

Also where are we getting the idea that the Post Office can't accommodate the entire Amazon HQ2 without help from Union Station plans? The existing building alone has 2.5 million square feet, but Davies craziest plans provided well in excess of the 8 million SF Amazon wanted. I'm having trouble finding the direct source on the PD, but Wikipedia says it was 16 million SF total including the 2,000 SF tower. That sounds super high, but when you take into account the fact that Sears is 4.5 million SF, then you realize just the post office and an adjacent Sears sized building would make 7 million SF for Amazon no problem not including the other towers at Holiday Inn or the other on the River.

The Post Office is the best site in the country for this, the question is whether our fucked up government precludes Amazon from choosing Chicago. That said, if it doesn't go to Chicago, I think and hope Philly will land it.