Ottawa's bid for Amazon HQ2

[BlackRedGold]

Originally Posted by Buggys

The feds giving a portion of Tunney's to a publically owned hospital is different from giving the whole pasture to a privately owned company. Plus, if Tunney's is given away to Amazon, where would the existing Health Canada & Stats Canada Employees go that's just as convenient to get to public transit & central?

How is it different? If the feds are prepared to move out of Tunney's, they've around figured out contingencies of where to move their employees. And why does it have to be as convenient?

[Buggys]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Try writing those talking points. "We could have brought 50k jobs to town, but it might have inconvenienced some bureaucrats"

There are already many middle class jobs at Tunney's -- they're what you call bureaucrats.

Giving all of Tunney's to Amazon is different from only giving a portion of Tunney's to the Civic, because the Civic is also publically owned. Also, the remaining area can be intensified so that Tunney's employees can remain at Tunney's.

There are options for Amazon to set up in Ottawa other than taking up the whole Tunney's site.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Buggys

There are already many middle class jobs at Tunney's -- they're what you call bureaucrats.

Giving all of Tunney's to Amazon is different from only giving a portion of Tunney's to the Civic, because the Civic is also publically owned. Also, the remaining area can be intensified so that Tunney's employees can remain at Tunney's.

There are options for Amazon to set up in Ottawa other than taking up the whole Tunney's site.

Bureaucrats that could be located anywhere in the NCR. There are no particular synergies to be gained by co-locating Health Canada and Statscan whereas Amazon is looking for a contiguous (or nearly contiguous) site.

[Buggys]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Bureaucrats that could be located anywhere in the NCR. There are no particular synergies to be gained by co-locating Health Canada and Statscan whereas Amazon is looking for a contiguous (or nearly contiguous) site.

Stats Can takes up just a small portion of the site now. Most of it is Health Canada, and there are definitely synergies for co-locating the rest of the Health Canada from scattered areas to Tunneys when the pasture gets intensified. There are other places in Ottawa that Amazon can look to, that isn't already taken up by thousands of employees.

[BlackRedGold]

Originally Posted by Buggys

Stats Can takes up just a small portion of the site now. Most of it is Health Canada, and there are definitely synergies for co-locating the rest of the Health Canada from scattered areas to Tunneys when the pasture gets intensified. There are other places in Ottawa that Amazon can look to, that isn't already taken up by thousands of employees.

It's not like you can say to Amazon, "Hey lets set your campus up in some field in north Kanata. You're going to love it there!". You need to put your best foot forward to attract them. They've got plenty of other options.

Where is Health Canada going to go? They're not leaving the region. If they have to relocate to north Kanata than so be it.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by BlackRedGold

It's not like you can say to Amazon, "Hey lets set your campus up in some field in north Kanata. You're going to love it there!". You need to put your best foot forward to attract them. They've got plenty of other options.

Where is Health Canada going to go? They're not leaving the region. If they have to relocate to north Kanata than so be it.

It's really hard to work in theoreticals, but we could likely move a significant portion of the people under consideration here to new facilities at the Tremblay site, and leave Tunney's for Amazon. Amazon gets the first-grade site with LRT and river access, the government gets a second grade site with reasonable LRT access and easy access from the east and south.

[1overcosc]

There's also that plot of land on the east side of Lebreton that has been planned to host two federal government towers for like 10-15 years but have never been built. That could easily take some of the load off Tunney's. And if the federal government wanted, they could issue an RFP for the private sector to build more office space in the CBD; there's quite a bit of intensification that's still possible. OTOH, there was a proposal a while back that went nowhere for a new office tower to be built on the NW corner of Bank & Laurier (where the low-rise building that has the Moores store is now). That's an example of a project that could move forward and provide the federal government with alternate, but still centrally located, office space to replace Tunney's.

[Buggys]

Think about how long it took to start moving DND folks to North Kanata, even after all the renos were done. Amazon wouldn't want to wait that long before the feds maybe move out from Tunney's.

Amazon wasn't set on having a spot downtown.

What about spots that aren't developed yet, or will be re-developed soon? The Lebreton Flats agreement is still in the negotiation stage. The Palladium area will be re-purposed if the Sens move out. There's also the Hurdman area.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Buggys

Think about how long it took to start moving DND folks to North Kanata, even after all the renos were done. Amazon wouldn't want to wait that long before the feds maybe move out from Tunney's.

Amazon wasn't set on having a spot downtown.

What about spots that aren't developed yet, or will be re-developed soon? The Lebreton Flats agreement is still in the negotiation stage. The Palladium area will be re-purposed if the Sens move out. There's also the Hurdman area.

A huge chunk of the Tunney's site is already vacant (grass or surface parking lots) and much of it is one or two story buildings the government is planning to tear down anyway. The grass and surface parking could be turned over to Amazon fairly quickly, the single story buildings within a few years and Jean Talon in the medium term. The federal government could keep Brooke Claxton if it wanted and leave Amazon South of Columbine (SOCO?).

[kevinbottawa]

The dream would be if they made Tunney's Pasture into Ottawa's La Defense or Canary Wharf with Amazon in there as the anchor if Ottawa wins the bid. Tunney's Pasture would be a cool name for a business district. Sounds a little quirky like Canary Wharf.

[rocketphish]

Byte on that, Toronto: Ottawa attracting more tech workers, says study
Indeed job site shows U.S workers prefer Ottawa.

By: Ryan Tumilty, Metro
Published on Tue Oct 03 2017

U.S. tech workers are hearing Canada’s siren song and when they do they’re being drawn to Ottawa’s Peace Tower much more than Toronto’s C.N. Tower.

New research released by job site Indeed found that when tech workers are looking to move out of country, they’re looking increasingly at Canada.

“Preference for Canada is even more pronounced and growing in tech—Canadian postings account for nearly 30 per cent of all U.S. job seeker’s clicks on tech postings outside the U.S. in the six months ended in May 2017, up from 23 per cent in the same period the previous year,” reads the company’s report.

They company has tracked spikes in international job searches around election day in the U.S. last November and again during President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

When those tech workers are looking they’re also looking at Ottawa more than Toronto according to Indeed.

While Toronto got the most number of clicks because it’s greater population means it has more jobs, Ottawa got a greater share of clicks in the tech sector.

Indeed found Ottawa’s history in the sector is helping to attract workers here.

“Ottawa is the most appealing metro area for US tech-job seekers. The capital city cemented its status as a tech hub in the 1990s as the host of the research and development headquarters of former communications giant Nortel Networks,” read their report.

Ottawa is currently attempting to lure tech giant Amazon to the city. The company has set a deadline of later this month for applications for their second headquarters and lists a large amount of tech talent as one of their primary needs.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/...ays-study.html

[rocketphish]

Do U.S. tech job-seekers really prefer Ottawa over Toronto?

By: Peter Kovessy, OBJ
Published: Oct 4, 2017 8:33am EDT

The battle of Ontario took on a new dimension this week with the release of new data by job search website Indeed that took a closer look at which Canadian cities are most appealing to U.S. tech workers considering a move abroad.

It’s been a particularly hot topic ever since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose divisive victory led many Americans to explore immigrating to Canadian cities – including Ottawa – and coincided with a big uptick in U.S. job applicants at local e-commerce firm Shopify.

The Indeed statistics, released Tuesday, looked at the number of clicks Canadian tech job postings received from within the United States.

The findings?

“Ottawa is the most appealing metro area for U.S. tech-job seekers,” the report said. That message was quickly repeated by Invest Ottawa, local media outlets and Bloomberg.

However, Ottawa only comes out on top after Indeed attempted to factor out the relative size of Canadian cities.

Indeed ranked metropolitan areas by comparing the number of clicks on tech job postings with clicks on all tech and non-tech positions in a city. By this metric, Ottawa placed first, meaning the city’s tech sector is disproportionately popular compared with all other local industries among U.S. job-seekers.

But what about the big question? Where do U.S. tech workers want to live in Canada?

Toronto.

Indeed says Canada’s largest city accounts for 46 per cent of U.S. job seeker clicks on Canadian tech jobs. Ottawa doesn’t even crack the top three, which is rounded out by Vancouver (15 per cent) and Montreal (seven per cent).

Indeed’s findings do suggest that tech is Ottawa’s major draw for foreign workers. Or that the city’s non-tech sectors don’t generate much interest among international job seekers. Or it simply speaks to the types of jobs that are advertised on Indeed.

Looked at in another way, the report found that tech is an important driver of Ottawa’s economy – a conclusion that may not be exactly new, but one that we at Techopia believe is absolutely worth celebrating.

http://www.obj.ca/index.php/article/...a-over-toronto

[rocketphish]

Invest Ottawa pulling together Amazon bid
Tech company wants a second home. Could it be Amazon?

By: Ryan Tumilty, Metro
Published on Wed Oct 04 2017

Amazon’s deadline for the cities looking to host their second headquarters and the 50,000 jobs that come with it is just two weeks away and Invest Ottawa is taking out all the stops.

The company announced in September it wanted cities to bid for their second headquarters, a complex separate from their current Seattle home that could give them eight million square feet of real estate.

Blair Patacairk, a managing director at Invest Ottawa, said the bid is coming together as the city works with Gatineau and both provincial government to put a joint foot forward for the National Capital Region.

“We are all singing off the same hymn page and working collaboratively to get a bid book done that will highlight the national capital region,” he said. “There is a lot of work going on, a lot of collaboration beyond what we would normally see going on.”

The company’s list of requirements is long and bigger than anything in the economic development world in many years. Patacairk said any city that is successful will have to scale up but Ottawa can do what the company wants.

“We already have a base of all of the things they’re looking for here.”

He said, as an example, no city is going to have the eight million square feet of space sitting empty and waiting, but Ottawa has identified places where that can go.

“We have multiple pieces of land that are in the city that we are looking at and we’re confident we can put forward as contenders for them.”

He said the bid has forced all the major players in the city to work together and win or lose the city will gain from this process.

“Whether we get them or we don’t get them we know have a bar that is set pretty high about what Ottawa can do,” he said. “Look at the international coverage we have received already. It’s put us on the map.”

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/...mazon-bid.html

[AndyMEng]

It seems to me that Tunney's is concentrated on the East side of the site. The remaining low-profile buildings will be demolished within 5 years, and most of those aren't occupied now anyways.

There's quite a bit of empty/underused office space downtown, especially to the west side (lyon) and to the east side (metcalfe). Why not relocate these gov't departments there, and re-intensify downtown, around the new LRT system?

Amazon can move to Tunney's and produce the mixed use planning porn that has been proposed, but they can accomplish the task without requiring heavy budgetary restrictions and cost-engineering all the fun out of it.

[daud]

Question...does anyone have thoughts about whether our relatively harsh winter climate will be a variable in this decision process?

I'm having difficulty envisioning these Seattle execs trudging through 3 months of snow with their starbucks.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by daud

Question...does anyone have thoughts about whether our relatively harsh winter climate will be a variable in this decision process?

I'm having difficulty envisioning these Seattle execs trudging through 3 months of snow with their starbucks.

Maybe, but that would also rule out a lot of cities. Bad weather didn't stop Boeing from moving from Seattle to Chicago.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by daud

Question...does anyone have thoughts about whether our relatively harsh winter climate will be a variable in this decision process?

I'm having difficulty envisioning these Seattle execs trudging through 3 months of snow with their starbucks.

If the location being pitched is LeBreton, that could easily be spun to "employees can ski to work on the SJAM winter trail." What other place can boast that?

[FFX-ME]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Do U.S. tech job-seekers really prefer Ottawa over Toronto?

By: Peter Kovessy, OBJ
Published: Oct 4, 2017 8:33am EDT

The battle of Ontario took on a new dimension this week with the release of new data by job search website Indeed that took a closer look at which Canadian cities are most appealing to U.S. tech workers considering a move abroad.

It’s been a particularly hot topic ever since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose divisive victory led many Americans to explore immigrating to Canadian cities – including Ottawa – and coincided with a big uptick in U.S. job applicants at local e-commerce firm Shopify.

The Indeed statistics, released Tuesday, looked at the number of clicks Canadian tech job postings received from within the United States.

The findings?

“Ottawa is the most appealing metro area for U.S. tech-job seekers,” the report said. That message was quickly repeated by Invest Ottawa, local media outlets and Bloomberg.

However, Ottawa only comes out on top after Indeed attempted to factor out the relative size of Canadian cities.

Indeed ranked metropolitan areas by comparing the number of clicks on tech job postings with clicks on all tech and non-tech positions in a city. By this metric, Ottawa placed first, meaning the city’s tech sector is disproportionately popular compared with all other local industries among U.S. job-seekers.

But what about the big question? Where do U.S. tech workers want to live in Canada?

Toronto.

Indeed says Canada’s largest city accounts for 46 per cent of U.S. job seeker clicks on Canadian tech jobs. Ottawa doesn’t even crack the top three, which is rounded out by Vancouver (15 per cent) and Montreal (seven per cent).

Indeed’s findings do suggest that tech is Ottawa’s major draw for foreign workers. Or that the city’s non-tech sectors don’t generate much interest among international job seekers. Or it simply speaks to the types of jobs that are advertised on Indeed.

Looked at in another way, the report found that tech is an important driver of Ottawa’s economy – a conclusion that may not be exactly new, but one that we at Techopia believe is absolutely worth celebrating.

http://www.obj.ca/index.php/article/...a-over-toronto

That was a really misleading release from indeed. Really what their initial study states is that Toronto has a more diverse economy while Ottawa is focused on government and tech. Ottawa really don't export anything other than tech but that doesn't mean more americans are looking to Ottawa for tech, just that less are looking to Ottawa for manufacturing jobs and the like.

[dougvdh]

Originally Posted by FFX-ME

That was a really misleading release from indeed. Really what their initial study states is that Toronto has a more diverse economy while Ottawa is focused on government and tech. Ottawa really don't export anything other than tech but that doesn't mean more americans are looking to Ottawa for tech, just that less are looking to Ottawa for manufacturing jobs and the like.

Pretty sure that if you offer someone two equal jobs - one in Ottawa, one in Toronto; that once they start looking at where they're going to live and how much it will cost, that person is going to have a hard time passing up on the Ottawa offer.

[DogsWithJobs]

I'm not sure it would even be a possibility but why not where the baseball stadium is. Baseball in Ottawa has never been successful. It is likely not enough room on it's own but are the RCMP planning to keep their campus where it is? (just on the other side of the Vanier parkway) (they already have moved a lot of people out to Barrhaven no?) Together that seems like it could be enough space.

This has direct access to the VIA rail station and LRT and is immediately off the highway.
Plus there is already a hotel and conference centre right there.