Amazon HQ2 thread

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

Nova/DC was obvious from day 1.

Chicago boosters really embarrassed themselves...thirsty af

I'd say nova yes but DC never likely for political reasons.

Nova, Newark, Philly, and Chicago would pretty much round out my list if somebody made me write it down a month ago.

At least we haven't yet dyed the river orange.

[SIGSEGV]

I would wait for Amazon to confirm before getting too excited (or upset?).

[Via Chicago]

i think towards the end of this process secrets are going to be harder to keep because theres just no way you can actually begin to move something of this scale forward without increasingly more people coming into the fold, and beginning to tip your hand. especially if youre planning on making an announcement "after the elections" (in other words...soon). honestly i seriously doubt real estate companies would be pulling their buildings off the market, etc, unless they were pretty damn confident. and this region has always been the front runner to begin with. but hey, who knows.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

I would wait for Amazon to confirm before getting too excited (or upset?).

The real question is will they deny it, like they have with the other rumors. If they don't, then it's legit.

Good luck to those Millennial employees ever being able to afford those multi-million dollar McMansions in Loudoun/Fairfax County...

EDIT: Between this report and Bezos saying he would go with his heart (which is clearly in DC and not Atlanta or Chicago, two cities he hasn't even visited), it's hard to believe NoVA isn't a done deal at ths point.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

i think towards the end of this process secrets are going to be harder to keep because theres just no way you can actually begin to move something of this scale forward without increasingly more people coming into the fold, and beginning to tip your hand. especially if youre planning on making an announcement "after the elections" (in other words...soon). honestly i seriously doubt real estate companies would be pulling their buildings off the market, etc, unless they were pretty damn confident. and this region has always been the front runner to begin with. but hey, who knows.

Lol no, taking listings off the market only takes the click of a button on costar.com and most commerical brokerage takes place off the market anyhow. The only people who use costar are upstart brokers and people who don't actually know the market. That's a silly tolken gesture and probably just a move to indicate their commitment to landling the deal.

Did anyone actually read the article? They are simply asking questions like "how quickly could you move employees" and "how would we announce it?" Those are probably questions being posed to a handful of cities. Also apparently the answer to question #2 is "we announce it by immediately leaking it to the press" which I think is probably the wrong answer.

[Kenmore]

So glad this isn't coming to chicago. City is already filled with too many libertarian tech bros. Huge win

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Did anyone actually read the article? They are simply asking questions like "how quickly could you move employees" and "how would we announce it?" Those are probably questions being posed to a handful of cities. Also apparently the answer to question #2 is "we announce it by immediately leaking it to the press" which I think is probably the wrong answer.

no other city has both unnamed private and public officials expressing extreme confidence to the press about their position either, nor has any other city indicated such advanced talks are occurring

were it happening here, i have no doubt thered be similar articles running.

[dc_denizen]

Crystal city, boring...

Unless they build on the ugly Potomac yard big box complex and move the sewage treatment plant.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by toddguy

I wouldn't count on Amazon going super tall(or even close)anywhere. They could have done that in Seattle, and have not. They are going to make that 5 billion stretch as far as they can(along with the billions they get from the chosen city/state) and higher up means more $$$$. Bezos is sort of a cheapskate really and I think much of his recent largesse (money for homeless, etc) is for his reputation and the reputation of the company and that only. Money spent, but spent strategically.

I still think Atlanta, Chicago, and DC are most likely JMO obviously.

No they can't go supertall in Seattle. A lack of development capacity here might be the #1 or #2 reason for HQ2. EVERY building they build here uses every square inch of developable floor area per the land use code. All but one site also involves a height limit, and they go right to it.

[skyscraperpage17]

To be fair, not that it changes my point (Bezos owns a home in Texas as well), but the article also says things are down to Austin.

[Via Chicago]

Didn't a lot of military offices move out of crystal city in the last 10 years? The vacancy rates are probably pretty high. If it's like what Amazon has done in Seattle, they'll rent out a bunch while tearing up whatever plots are cheap to build new 30 storey office buildings.
Is that strip club still in the underground? Probably good business for them.

Anyway this all makes sense. AWS is a frontrunner for the Jedi contract, their leadership has explicitly come out in defense of supplying computing tools to the genocide arms of the government, and in general I've seen a huge amount of focus on making money by expanding secure government support internally.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by The North One

No, true hipsters order everything from a Sears catalog.

You'll just never understand that kind of authenticity.

hahaha man, thats funny. I can see them now circling their Christmas presents they want and then mailing the catalog to mom and dad to order their stuff.

[jtown,man]

My dad lived in Crystal City about a decade ago...I always liked the area. Its clean, feels safe, and is like two stations from downtown DC or the airport.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

Didn't a lot of military offices move out of crystal city in the last 10 years? The vacancy rates are probably pretty high. If it's like what Amazon has done in Seattle, they'll rent out a bunch while tearing up whatever plots are cheap to build new 30 storey office buildings.
Is that strip club still in the underground? Probably good business for them.

Anyway this all makes sense. AWS is a frontrunner for the Jedi contract, their leadership has explicitly come out in defense of supplying computing tools to the genocide arms of the government, and in general I've seen a huge amount of focus on making money by expanding secure government support internally.

Another blood sucker heads for Washington. Not a surprise.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

So glad this isn't coming to chicago. City is already filled with too many libertarian tech bros. Huge win

Yeah, what Chicago needs more of is angry people with a chip on their shoulder. Know anybody like that?

[skyscraperpage17]

Probably to closest thing to a smoking gun we'll get...

BTW, Mike Grella is the director of economic development at Amazon...

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeGrella/status/1058768648884682753

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

Probably to closest thing to a smoking gun we'll get...

BTW, Mike Grella is the director of economic development at Amazon...

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeGrella/status/1058768648884682753

They brought thsi upon themselves. Stop treating your stupid office search like a fucking 2 year reality TV show. Why does any city even need to present a "plan" for how to communicate a " win" to the media? Here's how you announce, Bezos gets off his gold plated shitter and says "city B won. Bye". End of story. The amount of corporate coddling going on is completely pathetic

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by mhays

No they can't go supertall in Seattle. A lack of development capacity here might be the #1 or #2 reason for HQ2. EVERY building they build here uses every square inch of developable floor area per the land use code. All but one site also involves a height limit, and they go right to it.

Yeah this is true-that was not exactly the best thought out response on my part I will admit. I still think they would not go supertall even if they could, but who knows? Maybe cutting down on land costs would make it a go-if the zoning allowed it as you pointed out.

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

They brought thsi upon themselves. Stop treating your stupid office search like a fucking 2 year reality TV show. Why does any city even need to present a "plan" for how to communicate a " win" to the media? Here's how you announce, Bezos gets off his gold plated shitter and says "city B won. Bye". End of story. The amount of corporate coddling going on is completely pathetic

lol. That tweet was such a non-denial and really more of a scolding. Looks like it is Crystal City. Who would have thought it would be in the DC area huh? (and we all can join in the hate, regardless of political leanings!!!)


...and all these deserving cities out here and it goes to the cesspool. We can all hate on the DC area and not even feel bad about it!

*spoiled grapes alert*

[BG918]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

To be fair, not that it changes my point (Bezos owns a home in Texas as well), but the article also says things are down to Austin.

This was an interesting blurb from the article, would they split the HQ into one in the Central Time Zone and one in the Eastern Time Zone?

These sources told CNBC that a final decision is "close" and may come down to Northern Virginia or Austin, Texas — or perhaps a split between both cities.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by BG918

This was an interesting blurb from the article, would they split the HQ into one in the Central Time Zone and one in the Eastern Time Zone?

That would be interesting, but the fact that it was only mentioned in passing suggests it's not all that likely of a direction.