PHILADELPHIA | Schuylkill Yards Future Phases | 1,095 - 375 FT | 70 - 28 FLOORS

[Busy Bee]

I'm not going to flesh out an essay here, but I'll just say the fact that Amazon will continue to grow into a media force and having Philly have a presiding corporate overlord like Comcast had to play into their decision to stay out of Philadelphia.

[City Wide]

Originally Posted by mcgrath618

I’ve also heard that we might be a good candidate. They seem to like the Navy Yards and university city Square.

I have it on good authority that Bensalem is in the running. They've promised to open a brand new Wendy's once Apple make their final selection public.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Clearly, giving a d*** about their employees was not part of the equation. I can't think of less accessible/affordable/interesting places to live and work than Long Island City and Arlington. I've had LI friends tell me that they can get to Philadelphia in the same or less time than it takes them to get to Manhattan. I'm not taking Amazon's purported decision as an insult to our city, but as a mark of their cognitive deficiencies. Passing up on the middle ground between the those two places - a middle ground that would be more accessible/affordable/interesting, while being within easy striking distance of NYC and DC amenities and talent - just shows that their equation didn't contain too many variables beyond "gut" and tax incentives. Not thinking outside the cardboard box, in my estimation.

[Milksteak]

I can't think of less accessible/affordable/interesting places to live and work than Long Island City and Arlington. I've had LI friends tell me that they can get to Philadelphia in the same or less time than it takes them to get to Manhattan.

Don't know much about Arlington...but Long Island City is in Queens, not LI. It's quite literally across the river from Manhattan.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Clearly, giving a d*** about their employees was not part of the equation. I can't think of less accessible/affordable/interesting places to live and work than Long Island City and Arlington. I've had LI friends tell me that they can get to Philadelphia in the same or less time than it takes them to get to Manhattan.

I believe this too. In that area and parts of LI and the 2 boroughs that are part of LI, sometimes traveling 5-10 miles can seem like light years. It can sometimes, no lie, take you an hour to go less than 5 miles. Typically, early morning construction or a conveniently placed accident right near the tunnels or bridges can cause chaos.

JFK via belt park way to Elizabeth NJ can take 3 hours some days (I know because I've had to sit in that crap multiple times). Google the route to see what I mean. 15-20 miles of that urban stretch can take longer than traveling 100 miles on open road.

I was in Philly a few weeks ago, during rush hour, and the traffic was nothing. Traffic was bad in Philly, but when your lathered in raw shit traffic like I sometimes am, it hardens you. 20 minute delays are actually great. Hell... I wish I had 20 minute delays.

[montydawg]

Hi there- I’m in Philadelphia now (travel here every week), however I’m originally from Atlanta, and was pulling for Atlanta for the HQ2 competition. I used to live in center city and love coming back here. I can say that many cities were equally surprised and confused about the announcement, and in particular the Long Island city component. I currently live across the east river from Long Island city on UES, and while they have many new residential buildings, the urban dynamics of the area are horrible. If you walk on the streets at 10pm at night, you will likely be the only one on the street. It feels desolate. The streets are a confusing hodgepodge of brand new buildings and run down low rise buildings, and the subways in the area are over capacity and not inviting. There is a single grocery store. The one bright spot is the waterfront, which has a nice park and has a few interesting restaurants. The one thing they will get in NYC are plenty of recent college grads they can work like slaves, because that is the work atmosphere in NYC.

In the end, I don’t think amazon is looking for employees who are looking for a good quality city, like Philadelphia and Atlanta, where you can have a good quality of life and raise a family. They are looking for the young type A crowd who are willing to work 60 hours a week because they don’t know any better.

The good thing is Philadelphia got a lot of positive press So other companies have been keeping an eye on the process, and will consider the runner up cities when looking to relocate.

[iheartphilly]

^
Nice perspective.

Also, Arlington will give a housing and cost of living sticky shock for the 25k employee moving there. But maybe the 6 figure salary will cover that but the value would of been better in some other cities, including Philly.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Milksteak

Don't know much about Arlington...but Long Island City is in Queens, not LI. It's quite literally across the river from Manhattan.

Actually Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. I drive through LI City on my way to Huntington.

[Boku]

Just saw that the Pennsylvania state government was offering $4.6 billion in tax breaks to Amazon. Whoa.

[iamrobk]

Originally Posted by Boku

Just saw that the Pennsylvania state government was offering $4.6 billion in tax breaks to Amazon. Whoa.

Plus $1.1b from the city. You can't say we didn't try

[justremember]

No one likes us... apparently we do care.

[Milksteak]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Actually Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. I drive through LI City on my way to Huntington.

Nobody from Queens says "I'm from Long Island", I get that it is geographically located on Long Island, but it is literally New York City.

Either way, the Amazon office isn't in Manhattan, so this conversation is moot. No need to argue, this forum has enough pointless bickering.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

^
Nice perspective.

Also, Arlington will give a housing and cost of living sticky shock for the 25k employee moving there. But maybe the 6 figure salary will cover that but the value would of been better in some other cities, including Philly.

Housing in Arlington is crazy expensive.

[Boku]

As I mentioned the other day, HQ2 in New York and DC is not a bad consolation prize for Philly.

Amazon’s HQ2 expansions will help other cities, like Philadelphia, too

http://www2.philly.com/philly/business/a...ties-like-philadelphia-too-20181113.html

Amazon's expansion of its headquarters to New York City and suburban Washington, made public just a week after Google's announcement of a planned expansion in Manhattan, shows that the rich are getting richer: That is, only well-developed urban areas are benefiting from the growth of the tech industry.

Right? Not exactly. As well-compensated employees drive up costs in these cities, they will create incentives for workers and companies who can't afford San Francisco rents or Google salaries. "Trickle-down economic development" will create winners out of the cities that aren't landing new tech jobs or headquarters.

...

What's less apparent are the second-order effects that will be set in motion by Amazon and Google's expansion plans. Higher costs and congestion brought about by all these new tech workers in Northeast hubs will inevitably lead to some other workers and companies deciding against moving to New York and Washington. The costs might even prompt existing workers and companies to start searching for cheaper pastures.

Some may move to similar metro areas such as Boston, Philadelphia, or Chicago, while others may go to smaller areas such as Raleigh, Nashville, or Atlanta. Perhaps the $150,000 tech jobs will go to the richest cities. But the $90,000 tech jobs, unable to compete on cost, will have to go somewhere cheaper. The ripple effects will spread prosperity to more metro areas.

[iheartphilly]

^^
I think the question now is that both the State and City revealed their hands in terms of the amount of tax breaks in the $billions and will it have a lingering effect. Will this attract any other big business to establish a HQ in Philly or PA? So, if the upshot of going through the bidding process with Amazon is that both the city and state are will to offer so much in tax credits, I'm wondering what big businesses have noticed and will be knocking on our doors. Some fingers cross.

[McBane]

Originally Posted by montydawg

HI currently live across the east river from Long Island city on UES, and while they have many new residential buildings, the urban dynamics of the area are horrible. If you walk on the streets at 10pm at night, you will likely be the only one on the street. It feels desolate. The streets are a confusing hodgepodge of brand new buildings and run down low rise buildings, and the subways in the area are over capacity and not inviting. There is a single grocery store. The one bright spot is the waterfront, which has a nice park and has a few interesting restaurants. The one thing they will get in NYC are plenty of recent college grads they can work like slaves, because that is the work atmosphere in NYC.

This is fair enough but based on your description, it sounds strikingly similar to Schuylkill Yards and all the positives we thought would appeal to Amazon, namely a well located blank canvas for them to grow into. Both LIC and SY offer underdeveloped tracts of land with "horrible urban dynamics" that lie across the river from their respective city's core but also immediately adjacent to lively, fully urbanized neighborhoods (University City and Astoria, Queens). Didn't Atlanta's proposed site (the Gulch) also share these characteristics?

And regarding Arlington, VA - it's actually a decent city and not much like the rest of NOVA (subdivisions and big box centers along multi-lane parkways). But more to the point, being across the river from DC and having those Metro connections, many new hires will likely end up living in DC. EDIT: Also, it appears that Crystal City is very close to Old Town Alexandria which has a very vibrant, small-town feel (kinda sorta like Chestnut Hill). Overall, Arlington is not really all that bad of a location.

One interesting nugget. Locating the sites in LIC and Arlington isn't the same as Manhattan and DC in that the sites won't be very well connected by train, at least as a single seat journey. Not sure that matters...seems like Amazon was more concerned about airport connectivity to the mothership in Seattle.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Actually Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. I drive through LI City on my way to Huntington.

Brooklyn and Queens aren't LI. LI is Nassau/Suffolk only.

And LIC has nothing to do with LI, and is literally across the river, one subway stop from Midtown.

Also not sure why you would be driving through LIC to get to Huntington, unless you're coming from the UES via Queensboro Bridge (and even then it makes no sense; Triboro is much faster than surface streets).

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by McBane

One interesting nugget. Locating the sites in LIC and Arlington isn't the same as Manhattan and DC in that the sites won't be very well connected by train, at least as a single seat journey.

There are eight subway lines in LIC, alongside commuter rail, ferries and buses.

Of those subway lines, there are three direct tunnels, one stop into Manhattan, and for commuter rail, two direct tunnels, one stop into Manhattan. So five distinct train tunnels connecting to Midtown.

Outside of Midtown/Lower Manhattan and Downtown BK, there probably isn't better train access anywhere in North America.

[shakman]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Brooklyn and Queens aren't LI. LI is Nassau/Suffolk only.

And LIC has nothing to do with LI, and is literally across the river, one subway stop from Midtown.

Also not sure why you would be driving through LIC to get to Huntington, unless you're coming from the UES via Queensboro Bridge (and even then it makes no sense; Triboro is much faster than surface streets).

When I look at map and the definition of an island, Brooklyn and Queens is on Long Island. However for "name sakes", the term "Long Island" is considered as Nassau County and east of.

[McBane]

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