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

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

But the two quotes I cited are from a high-level Amazon exec. and a leading corporate location adviser, and not the Inquirer, although printed in the Inquirer. I know Philly's a bit of a long shot at this point, but there is a scenario in which Amazon would try to shock and awe with its decision, and not go where the media and safe money had been predicting all along. Can you imagine the PR jolt and buzz if after all of the speculation, Amazon announced that Philly were the winner?

cling to whatever you need to.

[Jayfar]

And probably the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens and Crystal City.

Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations | NYTimes.com

The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, according to two of the people briefed on the discussions. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said. Amazon already has more employees in those two areas than anywhere else outside of Seattle, its home base, and the Bay Area.

[snip]

[Mr Saturn64]

New York and Washington, eh? What a load of crap.

You know what else sucks? There's going to be a lot of train travel between the two, yes? Unfortunately, Amtrak doesn't really go through the best looking parts of Philly. That's going to be all the Amazon people see of Philly.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

cling to whatever you need to.

[Boku]

New York and DC, lmao. Of course.

I guess the good news is that all the people who will get priced out of those places can always find a home here. :-)

[Zapatan]

Shocker of the century. Amazon chooses the world's capital and nation's capital.

Have they mentioned what type of headquarters they're building? Will there be a skyscraper involved or will it be more like Google campus? (I guess the latter for DC since it doesn't really allow skyscrapers.)

Anyway, excited to see what they come up with

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Boku

Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Evenly Between Two Cities

So the model is HQ1 plus two halves? If accurate, choosing Queens and NoVa proves that Amazon never meant what it said in the specs (or that Bezos' "gut" doesn't benefit much from "data immersion").

[iheartphilly]

^
Looking at data and go with "gut" feeling never jived. Oh well. Glad this is coming to a close.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

^
Looking at data and go with "gut" feeling never jived. Oh well. Glad this is coming to a close.

Bezos filled his gut with data and got indigestion.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Londonee

The city needs to really look at how it presents itself to the world. After landing at the Airport, Amazon workers would have been whisked in the back of a black SUV past oil refineries, factory shells, a massive TRIGEN plant and decaying neighborhoods all along a weed strewn, litter infested highway that hasn't seen any meaningful investment since the Kennedy Administration. First impressions pack a powerful punch: "This is where I'm going to ask thousands of vendors/clients/consultants/employees to travel in and out of? I don't think so."

I was shooting on Broad Street near the convention center one night last week around 10pm. There's a brand new Aloft hotel there that looks pretty nice. Next door, though, was a fairly large homeless encampment (and all the accompanying accoutrement) taking up residence at the Church and on the sidewalk. On the gameboard plaza in front of the MSB were several skateboarders, and turning the corner and speeding up broad street was a dirtbike gang - like, it felt incredibly lawless, 100 yards from City Hall. Meanwhile, I'm watching hotel guests with their luggage dodge the seedy homeless camp and watch in wtf awe at the dirtbike gang. I'd be like, "take my word for it, just a few blocks south are really nice and cosmopolitan" - but most people's minds would already have been made up and I don't blame them.

Until the city sweeps itself up and take itself seriously, it'll NEVER land these types of businesses.

You've long pushed the "drive from the airport narrative" and I frankly just don't get it. Cities all over the world have their airport in more industrial rather than urban areas for obvious reasons. Do you really think people are offended by industry?

I've taken so many cabs from so many airports in cities all over the world and I honestly have almost no recollection which cities had some beautiful drive through the countryside or pristine neighborhoods, and which cities had me take a route that may well have been through the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

Who bases what they think about a city on the ride from the airport? What business would be scandalized by having clients fly out of an airport where the highway passes by industry and unkempt neighborhoods?

Would I like them to clean up the trash? Sure! But that's true all over the city. So, I agree much more about your second point about the cleanliness of the city overall. But I think if we're trying to make a good impression on visitors, I'd rather spend so much more on cleaning Center City before I'd even spend a cent on I-76. To me that drive from the airport is just such a nonfactor, I can't imagine even in my wildest dreams that this is playing any type of roll in any decision of significance. There are roughly 10,000 things I think Philly could tackle to be more attractive to lure companies here before they got to to weeding I-76, etc.

[eixample]

Crystal City and Long Island City must offer cheap enough and abundant enough land to build a campus for 25,000 employees. But it just seems that Amazon completely turned its back on the perspective of affordability of housing for their employees.

The one really good thing is this should give just a little bit more added pressure to fix the Hudson river rail tunnels and other infrastructure issues that limit or threaten fast, reliable rail between NYC and DC. That will definitely help Philly in the long run.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by allovertown

You've long pushed the "drive from the airport narrative" and I frankly just don't get it. Cities all over the world have their airport in more industrial rather than urban areas for obvious reasons. Do you really think people are offended by industry?

I've taken so many cabs from so many airports in cities all over the world and I honestly have almost no recollection which cities had some beautiful drive through the countryside or pristine neighborhoods, and which cities had me take a route that may well have been through the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

Who bases what they think about a city on the ride from the airport? What business would be scandalized by having clients fly out of an airport where the highway passes by industry and unkempt neighborhoods?

Would I like them to clean up the trash? Sure! But that's true all over the city. So, I agree much more about your second point about the cleanliness of the city overall. But I think if we're trying to make a good impression on visitors, I'd rather spend so much more on cleaning Center City before I'd even spend a cent on I-76. To me that drive from the airport is just such a nonfactor, I can't imagine even in my wildest dreams that this is playing any type of roll in any decision of significance. There are roughly 10,000 things I think Philly could tackle to be more attractive to lure companies here before they got to to weeding I-76, etc.

THIS^^^^

Londonee's second paragraph, regarding the local flavor around the Aloft Hotel and MSB, is a little more of an issue, but not a showstopper either.

As to the ride from the airport scenery, I would imagine captains of industry and commerce are not as offended by industrial sites as our consistent complainer. Same applies to the views along the Amtrak NE corridor, chock full of industrial ruin porn.

[Jayfar]

And a little more analysis from the Boston Globe:

Amazon reportedly planning to split HQ2 between two cities - The Boston Globe

Excerpt:
That may be a concession to what many say are Boston’s two biggest drawbacks when it comes to hosting such a big corporate campus: already-high housing costs and crowded roads and rails. Those same factors, observers say, may be what’s pushing Amazon to split HQ2 in two and lessen the effect on any particular city.

“I think it makes sense,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “One of the big complaints that I’m sure they heard from communities was that 50,000 employees would overwhelm the housing market and transportation systems and strain government services. I suspect they heard that everywhere they went.”

By dividing the spoils, and the headaches, across two locations, Amazon could tap multiple labor markets as well, perhaps finding better access to tech workers it needs to grow than any one city could provide. Given how tight labor markets are in many cities around the country, that approach could make a lot of sense, said Jed Kolko, chief economist at employment website Indeed.com.

“They want to hire a lot of workers and that would be a challenge in even the biggest of cities,” Kolko said. “Having multiple additional headquarters gives them room to hire the number of people they want.”

[snip]

Meanwhile, per the NY Times, NY Governor Cuomo has broken out the kneepads:

Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations | NYTimes.com

“I am doing everything I can,” Governor Cuomo told reporters when asked Monday about the state’s efforts to lure the company. “We have a great incentive package,” he said.

“I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes,” Governor Cuomo said. “Because it would be a great economic boost.”

[Daario]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

“I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes,” Governor Cuomo said. “Because it would be a great economic boost.”[/I]

Gross

[Nova08]

Originally Posted by allovertown

You've long pushed the "drive from the airport narrative" and I frankly just don't get it. Cities all over the world have their airport in more industrial rather than urban areas for obvious reasons. Do you really think people are offended by industry?

I've taken so many cabs from so many airports in cities all over the world and I honestly have almost no recollection which cities had some beautiful drive through the countryside or pristine neighborhoods, and which cities had me take a route that may well have been through the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

Who bases what they think about a city on the ride from the airport? What business would be scandalized by having clients fly out of an airport where the highway passes by industry and unkempt neighborhoods?

Would I like them to clean up the trash? Sure! But that's true all over the city. So, I agree much more about your second point about the cleanliness of the city overall. But I think if we're trying to make a good impression on visitors, I'd rather spend so much more on cleaning Center City before I'd even spend a cent on I-76. To me that drive from the airport is just such a nonfactor, I can't imagine even in my wildest dreams that this is playing any type of roll in any decision of significance. There are roughly 10,000 things I think Philly could tackle to be more attractive to lure companies here before they got to to weeding I-76, etc.

I too do not understand the push for a yellow brick road into Center City. If anything, PHL's great strength is the close proximity to Center City.

Flying in DFW or IAH make you feel like you might as well be in Oklahoma for how far away they are from the city centers. And I90 from ORD to the Loop is always a parking lot that takes an hour to go 15 miles. I often opt for the Blue Line, but that makes every stop and also takes an hour. That is like taking the MFL from 69th st. to Frankford back to Old City...with luggage.

The refineries and chemical plants have been here for decades and even if they were to close tomorrow, they'd be vacant for decades because the land is so polluted.

[Skintreesnail]

Whatever, I guess it makes sense but it's probably going to be worse than Seattle living in either of those locations. Still think Philly would have been a better choice seeing that it's in the middle of DC and NYC.

[Boku]

Originally Posted by Skintreesnail

Whatever, I guess it makes sense but it's probably going to be worse than Seattle living in either of those locations. Still think Philly would have been a better choice seeing that it's in the middle of DC and NYC.

If the rumors are true, being in between and so close to these two new headquarters is not a bad consolation prize for Philadelphia.

[Brandywine Rocks]

Originally Posted by Nova08

I too do not understand the push for a yellow brick road into Center City. If anything, PHL's great strength is the close proximity to Center City.

I do get it.

Unfortunately you cant do anything about the oil refineries, moving the sewage treatment plant is cost prohibitive but the highway infrastructure and general outdated look of the gateways leading into Center City is a major turnoff to visitors and corporate types imo.

Coming off the Platt Bridge onto 76 and Point Breeze ghetto scene is an outdated unkept disgrace. If your bezos and this is the first thing you see its JUST NO!!!!!!. This is not the place.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by Boku

If the rumors are true, being in between and so close to these two new headquarters is not a bad consolation prize for Philadelphia.

Yep. There should be some positive spillover effects that we benefit from. Of course you could never really measure them, but they'll be there nonetheless.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by Skintreesnail

Whatever, I guess it makes sense but it's probably going to be worse than Seattle living in either of those locations. Still think Philly would have been a better choice seeing that it's in the middle of DC and NYC.

Word. A Philly location could easily draw talent from both the DC and NYC areas, AND also the Philly area, and with a MUCH lower cost of living. And with both DC and NYC only a frickin' 2-hour, $10 bus ride away (and no doubt with significantly faster rail access in the mid-term future). Hopefully, if nothing else, this process has taught the Philly folks how to better sell the city and what it offers.