CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Notyrview]

Lol what punks. Final 20. I hate tech.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Lol what punks. Final 20. I hate tech.

Yeah, the final 20 pretty much includes every city anyone was seriously speculating as a possibility...

Glad to see Chicago's still in it though.

[gebs]

Originally Posted by Stunnies23

Chicago made the final 20 cities list to contend for Amazon’s HQ2. Other cities include LA, Denver, Austin, Dallas, Columbus, Raleigh, Miami, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, NYC, Nashville, Indianapolis, Toronto, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County Maryland, Wash DC, Atlanta, Boston, Newark

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=17044620011

This list is a little ridiculous. It's basically just a list of large cities in the US. I haven't taken much time to ponder on it, but the only insights I have are:

1. No love for San Francisco, Houston, or Minneapolis
2. A LOT of love for the DC area

[F1 Tommy]

Atleast 5 of those cities cost more to live in than Seattle. Strange free advertising that may backfire and piss people in atleast 19 of those cities off. I still think DFW or maybe ATL.


You might be right about the D.C. CSA. That might be the surprise to me front runner.

[bnk]

20 is ridiculousness, 5-6 max. Three are all that are needed at this point.

Kind of suspired so many are on the east coast, or at least time zone. NYC, Toronto, LA, Boston,DC are more costly. They don't make sense from what Amazon was originally asking for. And I find it hard to belive that Amazon will pick NC lacking a global airport. I cant see another west coast city, sorry LA. Miami makes no sense to me. I still Think Canada is a non starter and Columbus too small.

Iteresting to note there are only 3 cities in the Central Time zone, Chicago and two in Texas, so really there are only two possible locations in the Central Time Zone.
Very Eastern leaning list. Oh I forgot Nashville is in the central time zone, not sure what they can deliver on other than cheap housing.

How in the hell did Indianapolis make the list. Now we got to hear from the entire state of Indiana for the next 6 months before they start the next round at 10 cities.

Now lets hope for a nice warm sunny spring when the office and housing team returns and relooks at the sites they already had. No more polar Vortexes please.





IMO the real ones are the DC area, Phli, Atlanta, one of the Texas cities more likely Dallas and Chicago. So that's the real top 5.

[IrishIllini]

This was a very exciting opportunity but is now a full blown circus. I still want the jobs, but this is no way to expand your business. I'm sure Amazon is only seriously considering five or so of these cities. Why waste everyone's time?

[left of center]

^ Any publicity is good publicity?

In my opinion this is coming off as very cheesy and somewhat condescending from Amazon. This isn't a dignified way of doing business; this is an insult to all the potential host cities.

[subterranean]

Joke's on you, Amazon, that map doesn't even have Isle Royale.

[The Lurker]

Unsurprisingly Chicago has made Amazon's short list for its 2nd North American headquarters. There are 20 finalists.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazo...141341885.html

[Khantilever]

Originally Posted by gebs

This list is a little ridiculous. It's basically just a list of large cities in the US. I haven't taken much time to ponder on it, but the only insights I have are:

1. No love for San Francisco, Houston, or Minneapolis
2. A LOT of love for the DC area

I wouldn’t necessarily take it as a signal about DC. That they explicitly list three jurisdictions in the DC area may just reflect the fact that if they locate there they may have a footprint in each and so don’t want to take any of those jurisdictions (and their incentives) off the table.

I still don’t see how DC would ever work for them.

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by marothisu

The Apple announcement is interesting. I'm wondering what they want out of it. Will it be similar to what Amazon wants or will it be different? They seem to be more into the more suburban sprawling campus thing whereas Amazon may be more inclined to think more urban. Of course, the Chicago area can accommodate this already but I don't think anybody can comment on who has x, y, and z odds until they hear from Apple about what they actually want.

If Apple wants suburban they should take the old Motorola campus in Schaumburg.

[IrishIllini]

If Apple wants suburban and Texas is a non-starter, they're going to Atlanta.

[bnk]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ts-american-hq

January 18, 2018

Chicago wins American HQ of Britain's JLT

By Greg Hinz


As Chicago prepares to move on to the second round of Amazon's hunt for an HQ2 city, City Hall is celebrating another corporate win.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is announcing today that JLT Specialty USA, the American subsidiary of London-based JLT group, has chosen Chicago as its U.S. headquarters.
The announcement means the insurance brokerage will roughly double the number of employees it has at 225 W. Wacker Drive, adding about 60 workers over the next few years.
In a statement, Emanuel wasted no time in hailing the news as a sign of Chicago's attractiveness to corporations of all types.

"JLT could have chosen any city in the country as their American headquarters, but they chose Chicago because of the talent pool, infrastructure and stability our great city offers," Emanuel said in the statement, echoing the same kinds of arguments the city is believed to made to Amazon.

...

Further comments are expected at a press conference with Emanuel today.
JLT is getting no government financial incentives for the HQ decision.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by bnk

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ts-american-hq

January 18, 2018

Chicago wins American HQ of Britain's JLT

By Greg Hinz


As Chicago prepares to move on to the second round of Amazon's hunt for an HQ2 city, City Hall is celebrating another corporate win.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is announcing today that JLT Specialty USA, the American subsidiary of London-based JLT group, has chosen Chicago as its U.S. headquarters.
The announcement means the insurance brokerage will roughly double the number of employees it has at 225 W. Wacker Drive, adding about 60 workers over the next few years.
In a statement, Emanuel wasted no time in hailing the news as a sign of Chicago's attractiveness to corporations of all types.

"JLT could have chosen any city in the country as their American headquarters, but they chose Chicago because of the talent pool, infrastructure and stability our great city offers," Emanuel said in the statement, echoing the same kinds of arguments the city is believed to made to Amazon.

...

Further comments are expected at a press conference with Emanuel today.
JLT is getting no government financial incentives for the HQ decision.

With Emanuel as mayor, the city will be winning so much, we'll all be tired of winning

We aren't tired of winning though. Keep it coming.

[left of center]

Emanuel, Rauner clash in wake of Amazon news

Just hours after the city and state received the good news that Chicago has made the cut of 20 cities still in the running for its prized HQ2, sniping broke out between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner that can only imperil the city's prospects.

At a press conference announcing another headquarters move here—British insurance broker JLT Speciality is opening its American headquarters at 225 W. Wacker—Emanuel recoiled when asked about remarks earlier in the day from Rauner that the state needs to revamp and cut its tax structure to really be successful in the Amazon bid and beyond.

"He's in the middle of a campaign season," Emanuel said, referring to Rauner's race to win a second term in the November election. "The only campaign I have is to convince JLT and Amazon and others to move here."

...

Rauner initially had earlier only issued a statement saying he was "delighted" Chicago made the short list and emphasizing that he's "ready to show the company why we believe the Chicago area is their best option."

But in comments at a different event, the governor had this to say, too: "Gotta keep in mind, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, knows how bad taxes are here. The state of Washington, where they're coming from, does not have an income tax. I think we'll have a better case to make if we show we're disciplined about our own taxes, that we've worked to keep our taxes low, to keep our taxes down. If we make progress on this, this will send a great message to Amazon that Illinois is not always just raising taxes with a corrupt system. So I hope we can make changes. It'll help us bring Amazon here."

Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...of-amazon-news



Crain's seems to be making a bigger deal of this than it actually is. That being said, it would be great if Springfield used a bit of tact here. FFS, don't scare off the damsel before she's been courted!

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by left of center

Emanuel, Rauner clash in wake of Amazon news


Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...of-amazon-news



Crain's seems to be making a bigger deal of this than it actually is. That being said, it would be great if Springfield used a bit of tact here. FFS, don't scare off the damsel before she's been courted!

Dear god, that is a really benign statement from Rauner. When I saw the Crains headline they made it seem like a big deal.

[bnk]

Rauner STFU

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by bnk

Rauner STFU

Speak for yourself

[marothisu]

The Amazon circus is quite hilarious. First of all, I fully expected them to make an announcement cutting it down though I thought it would be top 10 or 15 - whatever. This really would make a great reality show.

One of my favorite parts about all this is people claiming to have insider info. This one guy on Curbed's Facebook page today claimed that he had inside info saying that Amazon only put Chicago on the list so Rahm wouldn't annoy them with questions and that traffic, weather, and the airport are reasons why they won't come.

LOL - burst out laughing at that. It's like --- okay, so they put a city on the list for a really coveted economic prize (maybe) and blocked another city that they may have thought was better - just so a mayor doesn't call them and ask questions? hahaha and then on top of it, they'll probably spend tens of thousands of dollars in the coming months on trips to Chicago with their delegation for meetings, tours, etc etc when they weren't considering it? Just so the mayor wouldn't ask them a few questions?

On top of it, a lot of the cities on the list have the same issues for why the guy said "NOPE!" - traffic? See NYC, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, etc. Weather? Toronto has worse winters than Chicago and they're on the list. Boston arguably has worse because of more snow and the temperatures aren't that much warmer. NYC, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Columbus, etc are all barely warmer in the winter and basically similar temps the rest of the year. Airport? Atlanta always has delays too, Newark is terrible and LGA can be terrible too. Miami has a bit of delays - etc.

Biggest load of self important "I know things!" I've heard in awhile. Quite hilarious. Not saying that Chicago *will* get it but that was a funny read.


Anyway, here are some cities that didn't make the cut: Detroit, Baltimore, Houston, San Diego, Phoenix, anywhere in the Bay area, anywhere in Washington State, Birmingham, Charlotte, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City

[IrishIllini]

People say what they want to say, especially online. If you hopped over to the City Discussion forum, you'd see posters like Sun Belt saying they'll be in Dallas, Houston, or Austin because weather. This is starting to feel like next level trolling by Amazon. I doubt it'll have long term effects on growth, but there are sure to be a lot of snake-bitten people if and when Amazon decides on a location for HQ2 that is not their city of choice. Lets hope it's not us