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Originally Posted by deerhoof
It was very coincidental that Amazon acquired Whole Foods and all of a sudden Austin could support a potential 1000 foot building. If Austin ends up with a 1000 foot building, then Austin must be destined for greatness because of how unprecedented it is for a city of Austin's size to get a building that tall. I had assumed all along that some huge tech company wanted to expand in a big way in Downtown Austin when this tower was announced and initially thought it was Facebook. It could be Amazon. Amazon might be behind Block 71 as well, for all we know. These are huge office buildings that are getting under way soon, when Austin was previously only building mid size (colorado tower) and smaller (IBC & Indeed buildings) office buildings aside from the 500 West 2nd building, which houses another huge tech company, Google. I think something big for downtown is in the works, and I hope it's Amazon moving to town with HQ2. Even if it isn't HQ2, Amazon may want a much bigger space for Whole Foods in Downtown Austin to consolidate those operations as that business will surely get much bigger now that it's under Amazon's wing. They were poking around at Shoal Creek Walk, apparently, but probably decided it wasn't worth it due to the limitations of the lot and maybe found their new space with 600 Guadalupe.
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The hype about Amazon is very premature at this stage. Remember cities across the nation are going to be competing so the idea that Austin is a shoe in is just not true. The tower has been in the works long before Amazon announced the Whole Foods buyout. I'd say for about 2 years at least.
Let's see what happens in October when Amazon accepts the proposals to see what we are really up against. If Amazon really wanted to pick Austin to be their 2nd HQ then they wouldn't have done a city contest sort of speak to pick the best candidate. Let's step back a bit and just wait and see before putting hopes up.