Amazon HQ2 thread

[mhays]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

But why should the Seattle region perform near the top on this particular list? This list would naturally be dominated by metros that are seeing all sorts of corporate investment from entities large and small, from all walks of life, criss-crossing the continent, I imagine. That would explain why New York doesn’t perform as highly despite the fact that it surely captures the largest amount of corporate investment in sheer dollars.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/am...le-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/

This ranking does not measure the most amount of dollars, but the highest volume of significant projects. It’s really an uncommon way to measure things, but it shines an interesting light on the underpinnings of the global economy. It for example shows why Chicago, which has not been as sexy in the most recent incarnation of the global economy (few really noteworthy names in modern tech as one example) also stubbornly isn’t exactly going away, so to speak. Too many unheard of middle men are building cargo facilities, distribution centers, auto dealerships, small supply-chain factories, intermodal hubs, extended stay hotels, airport facilities, in addition to the more visible tony office buildings, skyscrapers, transportation facilities, etc etc that we’re more used to talking about here.

Of course Seattle shouldn't be at the top. I didn't say it should, or how any city should rank. You're not following the discussion.

The article is exactly the sort of misleading information I'm talking about. Amazon is the #3 local private sector employer behind Boeing (I believe 65,000 or so) and Microsoft (50,000+ with contract employees). Simply reading the article would result in a wildly incorrect understanding of the city.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by mhays

I think trump is a big plus for Toronto. Visas have already been a big problem at HQ1 (albeit with a large foreign percentage actually working there), and this seems to be getting worse. It's not just a three-year problem, because it'll presumably take the president, house, and senate working in concert to reverse it.

There would be some backlash, but a clear message would be easy...Amazon wants to recruit the world's best, and Toronto is both viable in its own right and easier to recruit to due to US immigration policy. The only question would be how much to tie that to trump specifically.

Exactly. My company had major issues this year because a lot of the people hired last year who received H1Bs in the lottery were requested to provide additional support to justify the visa app criteria. The process required some people to go on unpaid leave for months and left their project teams scrambling to plan around them.

We also had people who ended up having to leave the country because they did not get a visa through the lottery. One of those people worked closely with me and she ended up transferring to our Toronto office.

I still don't quite believe they have told us the real reason for building a second HQ, but if it is indeed for talent, it almost doesn't make sense for them to put this new office anywhere but Toronto. It'll be way easier for them to get visas for U.S. workers to go to Canada than it would be for them to get non-Americans/Canadians into the U.S.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

It'll be way easier for them to get visas for U.S. workers to go to Canada than it would be for them to get non-Americans/Canadians into the U.S.

I agree with this. Was doing some research on the immigration to Canada yesterday (was curious), and it looks like its quite easy for an educated person, of good income to get into Canada. Their express permanent citizen path could get someone citizenship (from U.S.) within a year. Which is quite rapid when you consider the U.S. time frame.

[KevinFromTexas]

Renderings

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/...t-the-amazon-hq2-proposal-baltimore.html

Take a look at the Amazon HQ2 proposal Baltimore pitched

[James Bond Agent 007]

I kinda feel sorry for all the people who spent all this time - including, likely, overtime hours - putting together all those fancy presentations, only to have them not even make the top 20.

[C.]

Strong Rumor that the DC trifecta will be chosen for HQ2.

Reported on the website Zero Hedge

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by CIA

Strong Rumor that the DC trifecta will be chosen for HQ2.

Reported on the website Zero Hedge

Consider the source.

[James Bond Agent 007]

It was on Business Insider, too:
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-drops-hq2-hint-arlington-virginia-2018-2

Meh, who knows. Could mean a lot of things.

[chris08876]

Arlington would be neat. Further density for that corridor. I can't see any dramatic changes with the districts height limit, but if it builds upwards outside of the district, more power too it!

[KevinFromTexas]

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/...-georges-county-amazon-hq2-pitch-dc.html

Here's what a suburban D.C. county pitched for Amazon HQ2 — and why it lost

By Katie Arcieri – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal
4 hours ago

Weeks after being shut out of Amazon's short list of contenders for HQ2, Prince George's County, Maryland, has learned why it did not make the cut: The county doesn't have a large enough pool of senior-level software engineers.

"They saw deeper concentrations of software development engineers in other areas," said David Iannucci, a top economic development official for Prince George's who spoke with Amazon, along with other county officials, on a phone call. "They literally told us there was nothing we could have done differently in the RFP to change the outcome."

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/...-georges-county-amazon-hq2-pitch-dc.html

That makes absolutely no sense to me, assuming DC is actually the favorite.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

That makes absolutely no sense to me, assuming DC is actually the favorite.

Well, actually, now that this location and Baltimore are known to be out, it could still mean that Arlington is it. I haven't been following DC's chances too much, but that would make some sense to me.

[bnk]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-li...prove-pivotal-to-their-growth-2018-02-22

The live-work-play HQs that Amazon — and even McDonald’s — embrace could prove pivotal to their growth

Published: Feb 22, 2018 9:07 a.m. ET



Developer Sterling Bay tells companies across industries that location and design lure talent — and that increasingly means a downtown zip code

Amazon’s beauty contest for a highly coveted second headquarters made clear that its future satellite address “could be, but does not have to be” a downtown campus like its Seattle home base. Some of the 20 finalists, locations around Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, for example, would put Amazon’s footprint firmly in the suburbs.
But to rebuff a distinctly urban or urban fringe setting now would be in contrast to the direction that an increasing number of major corporations are taking with doubling down on, and in some cases, moving to, urban zip codes for their headquarters or regional hubs.
Their bet is that talented hires are tired of long commutes and limited or expensive housing, far from city centers. These companies want to sell a lifestyle to current and future employees — millennials, empty-nesters and in-betweeners — with convenient gyms, restaurant options offering mere steps from desk to happy hour and road or rail transportation choices, including parking for staff that gets to work on two or four wheels.

...

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Well, actually, now that this location and Baltimore are known to be out, it could still mean that Arlington is it. I haven't been following DC's chances too much, but that would make some sense to me.

That still doesn't make sense to me. Why is it that Prince George's Co. doesn't have enough developers, but Arlington, VA does? Prince George's County is literally 15-20 miles from Arlington and has direct connections to Arlington via DC's metro. I would assume people in the DC area would be open to commuting to either. I understand Arlington has a larger corporate presence, but it's still an odd development in this increasingly bizarre contest.

[Sun Belt]

I think the greater D.C. area is the front runner at this point.

[IrishIllini]

Based on?

It may very well be that the DC area is the front runner, but Prince George's Co. gets axed so neighboring Arlington becomes the favorite? If talent is an issue in a neighboring, relatively affluent county, why is it a non-factor in Arlington?

[a very long weekend]

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Employees Are Very Interested in a Particular Article About Arlington
by ARLnow.com February 20, 2018 at 10:50 am

Eagle-eyed readers of this site may have noticed something odd in this past Friday’s weekend discussion post: namely, the inclusion of an article from December among the most-viewed stories of the week.

We also found that unusual, so we did a bit of digging. It turns out, there have been more than 6,000 views of the article, “County Wins Top Environmental Award from U.S. Green Building Council,” over the past week.

Here’s an excerpt:

So from where is all this newfound interest in Arlington County’s sustainability bonafides coming? From Amazon.com, it seems.

The vast majority of the traffic to the page over the past week that can be tracked came from what appears to be an internal Amazon.com page devoted to its HQ2 search. Arlington, of course, is in the running as one of the potential landing spots for the company’s second headquarters.

No other page on ARLnow.com has a similar level of traffic coming from Amazon.

Last week a noted NYU professor who has written about the company opined that New York City and the D.C. area are among the most likely finalists for HQ2, due to a combination of being destinations for talented workers and being places that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos likes to frequent.

https://www.arlnow.com/2018/02/20/amazon...in-a-particular-article-about-arlington/

The "noted NYU professor" is Galloway.

Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University's business school, has laid out his predictions for where Amazon will put its new headquarters, HQ2.

Last year, Galloway accurately predicted Amazon would buy Whole Foods, lending his newest prediction some clout.

He narrows HQ2's location down to five regions on Amazon's 20-location shortlist. They're all in either the New York metro area or the Washington, DC, metro area.

Why those two regions? Galloway says there are only two items to consider.

The first is where Amazon can attract the best talent.

"In the eyes of Amazon, the best talent is a 24-year-old [electrical engineering] grad from MIT," he said. "This individual isn't concerned with cost of living — cost of living only matters when you're in your 30s and you begin collecting dogs and kids."

The second, Galloway says, is where Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants to spend his time. Galloway points out that Bezos already owns homes in New York and DC.

Attracting talent for Amazon is obviously going to figure. The DC area can attract top talent, particularly if it's in the District, that's self-evident.

The point about CEO preference has a couple prongs: (1) where the CEO wants to spend his time; (2) where the CEO sees long term value.

On the first, Bezos has bought the largest home in the District, and he owns the Washington Post outright, that is, not as an Amazon company. He clearly already spends a lot of time in DC. On the second, many see the biggest hurdle to Amazon's future growth as potential action coming out of the capital, by regulators or legislators. These observers see Bezos' moves in DC as trying to inoculate the company from overly critical government scrutiny. Making Amazon into a hometown company would go a long way to achieving that goal.

I've been on here as saying it'd go either Chicago or DC area since the start, and I've been looking for any sign that Chicago is still in the running. But nothing significant has surfaced since the site tour last year.

Could be that Chicago is a stalking horse to get a better deal from DC or Virginia, which would be a shame, since Amazon would be a great fit there.

[MolsonExport]

I heard on good account it is heading to Fairbanks.

[IrishIllini]

So we've gone through the following cycles:

• It's going to Boston
• It's going to Chicago
• It's back in Boston
• It's going to Atlanta
• Someone mentions Miami?
• It's going to NYC (Chicago thread discussion)
• It'll be in DC

Safe to say it's probably none of these. Pittsburgh it is.

[the urban politician]

Well I have been saying all along that Chicago should not play the game of being the “stalking horse” for Bezos who probably wants to be in DC or the likes anyhow.

If they are silly enough to think that they need 50,000 MIT grads to be successful, then let them go ahead and pay for it.