Amazon HQ2

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by freerover

I didn't say it was Manhattan. My point was that you're not comparing "queens" to Austin. You're comparing New York City to Austin.

Right, but you will be competing against a lot of other employers who are looking for developers in the city that have offices in far more desirable locations. LIC is definitely turning into a nice area (I had some friends who lived off Borden), but it's a very odd choice.

NYC is competitive as all get out for recruiting. I had head-hunters calling me almost daily to move to a new job. Obviously Amazon will make this work, but it would be something that stuck out in my mind as a potential job-seeker.

I'm just not sure why they wouldn't look at the developments going on around Penn Station, which is easier for commuters from Long Island and NJ to reach, and obviously better connected within the city itself.

[Sigaven]

Just a thought....Amazon seems to be getting a lot of flak in the news lately for reports of DC/NYC winning HQ2/3. Lots of people seeing the whole thing as a sham to get cities to out-bid each other with incentives. I wonder if Amazon would make a last minute decision to pick another finalist that did not offer such huge incentives, like Austin....to save face and smother the flames of such allegations...

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

Just a thought....Amazon seems to be getting a lot of flak in the news lately for reports of DC/NYC winning HQ2/3. Lots of people seeing the whole thing as a sham to get cities to out-bid each other with incentives. I wonder if Amazon would make a last minute decision to pick another finalist that did not offer such huge incentives, like Austin....to save face and smother the flames of such allegations...

hope you right, but I doubt it. unless Oracle's got something to say.......come on man. (is there a way to tag someone on this forum?)

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

Just a thought....Amazon seems to be getting a lot of flak in the news lately for reports of DC/NYC winning HQ2/3. Lots of people seeing the whole thing as a sham to get cities to out-bid each other with incentives. I wonder if Amazon would make a last minute decision to pick another finalist that did not offer such huge incentives, like Austin....to save face and smother the flames of such allegations...

I mean, it was *always* a sham. If anyone thought they were actually doing anything other than playing cities off each other to expand where they already wanted to, i have some ocean front property in AZ to sell you.

This was always going to be the case, and my gut feeling tells me you are going to see offices in *most* of the finalists over the next few years. They were likely strategic growth cities for Amazon already, and they were just going to dangle a carrot and see if they could get any incentives.

Go down the list, and most of the cities make sense for Amazon offices over the next 10 years. My guess is we'll see a 400K-500K office expansion in Austin in the next 5 years, and had city council dropped trow for them, maybe we would have gotten all of it announced at once in exchange for tax breaks and they would be talking about splitting into 3HQs. Likely the same for most cities.

Crystal City was probably the closest-in DC city that threw money at them, and they wanted to be in DC from the get go. But that is closer to a sports owner playing the burbs off one another for a new stadium.

HQ2 was very clearly a lie at this point (splitting it in two negates the "equal to Seattle in every way" bit) and was a useful fishing expedition.

[austlar1]

I think the question we should be asking now is whether or not Whole Foods will remain headquartered here in Austin.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by austlar1

I think the question we should be asking now is whether or not Whole Foods will remain headquartered here in Austin.

I doubt that will happen. Amazon has a lot of investment in Austin despite whatever their HQ2/3 crap outcome is. Whole foods will continue to be based here. More office space is in the pipeline not just for Whole Foods but Amazon itself, their workforce is continuing to expand here. We may not be a "HQ" but it's fair to say that Austin is a major Amazon hub. That won't he changing anytime soon.

[enragedcamel]

I agree, there aren't any good reasons for migrating Whole Foods to another city, since Amazon already has a presence here.

[austlar1]

I'd feel better hearing that from Amazon officials.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by austlar1

I'd feel better hearing that from Amazon officials.

I agree with you, at least to a degree. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of things are on the table for the HQ2 and HQ2.5 packages. Amazon will have made commitments to these cities, and you kind of have to assume that a Whole Foods HQ is a not-insignificant chip to throw on the pile. If you're Bezos you're going to move the pieces around where they most make sense, and if WF discharges a debt or makes one of the cities whole . . . gotta figure he'll consider it strongly.

[austlar1]

Here is my take. Amazon did not acquire Whole Foods just to run with WF's operating model. Whole Foods was starting to lose momentum and market share prior to being sold. Clearly Bezos saw something different for Whole Foods going forward. At some point Amazon may decide to shake things up and bring Whole Foods more directly into the Amazon operating stable. That might require a different culture. I am just speculating. Perhaps Amazon is happy with the current Whole Foods operation and wants to leave things in place. I was more concerned about a move when it looked like Dallas might be one of the choices, but I still wonder what the future holds for Whole Foods here in Austin. There has to be a better reason to keep the headquarters here in Austin than the simple fact that it is already here. I'd love to hear more from Amazon on this subject.

[papertowelroll]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Here is my take. Amazon did not acquire Whole Foods just to run with WF's operating model. Whole Foods was starting to lose momentum and market share prior to being sold. Clearly Bezos saw something different for Whole Foods going forward. At some point Amazon may decide to shake things up and bring Whole Foods more directly into the Amazon operating stable. That might require a different culture. I am just speculating. Perhaps Amazon is happy with the current Whole Foods operation and wants to leave things in place. I was more concerned about a move when it looked like Dallas might be one of the choices, but I still wonder what the future holds for Whole Foods here in Austin. There has to be a better reason to keep the headquarters here in Austin than the simple fact that it is already here. I'd love to hear more from Amazon on this subject.

I certainly would expect Amazon to inact substantial corporate change at Whole Foods, but I don't see why that would include changing the location. Austin is a city that Amazon is making huge investments in regardless of WFM. I would understand your sentiment more if WFM was located in a random city that Amazon would otherwise have no interest in.

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I doubt that will happen. Amazon has a lot of investment in Austin despite whatever their HQ2/3 crap outcome is. Whole foods will continue to be based here. More office space is in the pipeline not just for Whole Foods but Amazon itself, their workforce is continuing to expand here. We may not be a "HQ" but it's fair to say that Austin is a major Amazon hub. That won't he changing anytime soon.

Maybe Amazon intends to make Austin a "Focus" city.

[masonh2479]

Originally Posted by the Genral

Maybe Amazon intends to make Austin a "Focus" city.

Nice profile picture, and I don’t know where your getting this information because my sources on a.net and yahoo answers say that Amazon will never make Austin a focus city let alone a hub. They may add a hundred or so jobs but that’s it.

Honest question time, when is Amazon actually gonna announce their final pick? Are we just going to keep getting teased until the end of time? Right now my two finalists are the Virgina metroplex and Atlanta but I honestly believe Amazon might be stalking to see how much money and free stuff they can get before finalizing.

Edit: It actually seems like they made their decision, splitting the HQ between New York and Northern Virginia.
Edit 2: I can’t read, this was already announced above, ignore my stupidity.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Here is my take. Amazon did not acquire Whole Foods just to run with WF's operating model. Whole Foods was starting to lose momentum and market share prior to being sold. Clearly Bezos saw something different for Whole Foods going forward. At some point Amazon may decide to shake things up and bring Whole Foods more directly into the Amazon operating stable. That might require a different culture. I am just speculating. Perhaps Amazon is happy with the current Whole Foods operation and wants to leave things in place. I was more concerned about a move when it looked like Dallas might be one of the choices, but I still wonder what the future holds for Whole Foods here in Austin. There has to be a better reason to keep the headquarters here in Austin than the simple fact that it is already here. I'd love to hear more from Amazon on this subject.

Amazon acquired whole foods because they are the only nationwide high-end grocery store. It allows them to tap into a nationwide system of vendor-sourcing and grow that out to become a food delivery service over the next 10 years.

They could leave Austin for that, but it would require the relocation of a whole lot of people that built the network they want to tap into. Moving an HQ is hard for lots of reasons and would potentially open them up to a mass exodus of talent to a competitor.

[The ATX]

From the WSJ:

Amazon has decided that its second headquarters will be located in New York City and Northern Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening.

A formal announcement is expected as early as Tuesday, the Journal reported, adding that other cities may also receive major sites.

https://www.statesman.com/news/20181...rs-reports-say

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by The ATX

From the WSJ:


https://www.statesman.com/news/20181...rs-reports-say

This is somewhat predictable. We already knew they wanted another 200k+ in Austin space 18 months ago. It's completely possible we see a 500-600K announcement in the next 6 months.

I think most of the finalists will see similar.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

This is somewhat predictable. We already knew they wanted another 200k+ in Austin space 18 months ago. It's completely possible we see a 500-600K announcement in the next 6 months.

I think most of the finalists will see similar.

It's interesting that this search has morphed from "where do we put our new HQ" to "what does our office distribution strategy look like for the next decade or so."

Not entirely sure Amazon itself is going to follow along with that script, but I'm hoping we'll get a glimpse of what they want to do when they drop the formal announcement.

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by The ATX

From the WSJ:


https://www.statesman.com/news/20181...rs-reports-say

The other city is Nashville:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill...nashville.html

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

The other city is Nashville:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill...nashville.html

Yup. Here's the official official Amazon announcement.

https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company...w-headquarters

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by We vs us

It's interesting that this search has morphed from "where do we put our new HQ" to "what does our office distribution strategy look like for the next decade or so."

I don't think it morphed to that, I think that was the whole strategy all along. Saw this on the twitter which sums it up nicely.