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Amazon looking to build a second HQ in North America, will add 50k jobs
- Thread starter RastaMentality
- Start date
PoorChoices
Member
I hope they go the complete opposite way that everyone thinks they're going to go and just choose somewhere in West Virginia or lower Delaware. Places that depended on coal or nylon and the jobs( along with the factories) no longer exist. I hope they pick one of the dying/dead towns that almost everyone has seen at least one documentary on. I'd honestly like to see these businesses come to these areas and resurrect the local (and even the not local) area. Delaware specifically due to being on the east coast, access to shipping ports, and easy accessibility. The majority of Delaware is based off of branches from U. S. Route 13, which goes from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
This isn't happening. Given their criteria it needs to be a metro of 1.5 mil that has and can retain a tech work base. That pretty much eliminates most cities.
I'm going to take a wild bet here, but I'm willing to say Sacramento might be a top contender, and more specifically by the airport at the old sleeptrain site where the Kings used to play:
Amazon is already their building a HUGE new fulfillment center at the air park a couple miles away, is also building a new hub for themselves at the airport as well which could be used for shuttling employees, The region fits the population reqs, has tech talent for days, will have no problem courting more due to the proximity to Silicon Valley, is already building a shit ton of new homes right in the same area due to the explosion of Silicon Valley workers already moving to the city
And most importantly, courting a tech giant has been the mayors whole pitch to the city with repeated trips into the bay for meetings. And the Kings have been looking for a major player to take over the old Arena site for a year now, turning down multiple offers that weren't large enough
It'd be Golden 1 Center part 2 with the amount of free shit Sac would probably give Amazon to see it happen
Randolph Freelander
Member
I would be surprised if it's anywhere west of the Mississippi, other than Texas. Main HQ is already in Seattle, they would surely be looking east for another site.
But I've been wrong a time or three this week.
But I've been wrong a time or three this week.
ghostofsparta
Member
Pleeeeaaasseee don't be Los Angeles. Here's rooting for texas or Canada!
TheOctodad
Member
Minneapolis is my bet. Obviously other good choices too, but it'd be an aggressive move with Target and Best Buy here.
They recently put in some more distribution centers. We have the Super Bowl here next year as well so I could see some big splash being made about sponsoring that and moving into the Twin Cities.
They recently put in some more distribution centers. We have the Super Bowl here next year as well so I could see some big splash being made about sponsoring that and moving into the Twin Cities.
Randolph Freelander
Member
I'm actually rooting quite hard against Texas. Anywhere but there, because screw Texas.
Edit: Unless this is enough to tip Texas blue. In which case...
Edit 2: Trump won by 800K votes. Screw Texas.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
I would think Houston, but not sure exactly where in the hell they would put it. Honestly, they could take the old ConocoPhillips headquarters that is empty now. A ton of room already and extra land to build on. Though the traffic over there would get massively worse if they did. They could do like Exxon and build up north. Wouldn't be too far away from the big airport either.
mhayes86
Member
This would be my guess as well. I would like to see it go to a city that could use the jobs or develop a tech industry since NoVA is already filled with them. On another note, I don't want more traffic or the area to be any more expensive then it already is.
superdeluxe
Member
Taxes and incentives are two of the qualifiers. So access to good tech pool and business friendly environment. Would seem to favour places like Austin, Raleigh etc
This is exactly why Sac is a contender.
Amazons already basically taking the airport over with the air park and huge hub they're building
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
And an area full of people who don't know how to do them
Pagusas
Elden Member
That would put DFW in the highest of runnings, as DFW airport has more available space then any other airport in the US. It can still double its size and Dallas will invest in it if a business comes in like Amazon.
DataStream
Member
Detroit or Cleveland, they could use it.
superdeluxe
Member
How is Sacramento re taxes/incentives?
Pagusas
Elden Member
Your airport sucks though...
Random Human
They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
The one thing I could see being attractive about Toronto for attracting talent would be it's free from the political madness of the U.S., but similar enough that there wouldn't be a culture shock.
You might as well forget NC. I'm sure they wouldn't want to deal with the backlash.
entremet
Member
Not great talent hubs.
Pretty much what I was going to post. Good luck to whichever city they choose to fuck. Austin?
Amazon University! BOOM! More jobs.
EDIT:
Thing is, I'm pretty sure they're going to be sizing up Minnesota. Tech and Medical rich cities, large hub already established, large property available near mature airport (old Ford manufacturing plant).
I just know that unemployment is low here, so I'd like to see the jobs go to places that REALLY need them.
Zoe
Member
Backlash from whom?
Randolph Freelander
Member
Omaha land is cheap, and companies tend to move their HQs here. We've got Union Pacific's HQ, the HQ of the United States' largest private bank in First National, the HQ of one of the largest architecture companies, the HQ of one of the largest construction companies that built most of those other HQs, Mutual of Omaha, Warren Buffet's empire, the HQ of one of the largest credit card processors, a huge call center industry, a huge freight/trucking industry and we have tons of failed and in-progress gentrification efforts, so Amazon would fit right in.
They're not building in Omaha
Randolph Freelander
Member
The NC GOP legislature does awful things, such as HB2. (But truth be told, Texas is doing the same things, just not getting the same headlines.)
The LGBTQ community for one. That so called "repeal" didn't change the anger equation.
Marmaladefire
Member
This will never happen. There's no already standing talent for this in these places, they bleed educated young people, there are no large/good schools, and the people they want to hire do not want to move to bumblefuck.
That being said, RTP is ripe. Just give us the gentrification death blow. I'd rather oblivious liberals overrunning the area than voter suppression loving hate monsters.
West coast cites are also very unlikely. A lot of people on the east coast would be extremely excited about the idea of eastern seaboard silicon valley (for better or worse). Somewhere from NoVa to Atlanta would probably be the most accommodating for it.
GreatestHits
Member
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they're trying to bring in top talent. This is a logistics center, no? I thought they are praised for paying $10/hr to 80% of the workforce
Edit:
Oh shit, this is HQ2, not another distribution center. Hmmm.... HQ2.... It's not gonna be Texas IMO
They already have an Amazon office in Toronto. Unless you suggest they build a campus for themselves somewhere in the city.
I agree the repeal was weak, but it seems to have mollified corporate America, so I don't see there being much backlash outside of the affected communities, unfortunately.
Septimus Prime
Member
Go ahead and dump it in Santa Monica. It's only congested 99% of the time, so there's still room.
Marmaladefire
Member
Brings in arguably already privileged people from other areas for high paying tech jobs, which drives up prices on everything ( Like when people say "It's all over when a whole foods opens" Amazon is literally whole foods), which in turns makes things too expensive for natives/people who aren't making upwards of $150k~ per household, and thus drives them out of their own communities. Then the schools become even more segregated, putting black and brown children in a worse situation than they already were in and they might as well actually paint a thick red line on the edges of town.
STL has an empty runway (expanded right before TWA failed)
To sum it up: gentrification.
Amazon opening a new HDQ is headlining news. I know they are not going to want a damper on it which will happen if they open in NC. Corporate America going back doing business with NC doesn't change that. Nobody cares about some company opening a small field office, Amazon opening a new HDQ is on a different level. If you live in NC, blame the boneheads in the state legislature.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Philadelphia is perfect for this. It's got it's own burgeoning tech scene, but it specializes in education and medicine for the most part, due to the lack of large tech firms in the area.
It's got 1.5 million people, meeting the larger than 1m population requirement, and a metro area of over 4 million.
It's centrally located in an area that it is very easy to attact talent. It's less than 3 hours from New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. 5 hours from Boston and Pittsburgh.
It's also got the infrastructure. The city was developed to house and maintain living for 2 million residents, but the rust belt decline hit it hard and the population is now only 1.5 million.
It's on the East coast, which is probably the ideal location for doing business with Europe, and would be opposite the country of their original Seattle offices.
It's got a massive plot of land at the Navy Yard which is currently housing many exciting companies and is a massive economic driver, but it's also a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which means it's abated from nearly every Pennsylvania State Tax and Philadelphia City Tax, which is obviously going to be interesting to Amazon.
It's got a major international airport, a major international port, and sits on one of the greatest shipping hubs in the USA. Philadelphia is the 7th largest shipping hub, and it's an hour and a half from NYC/NJ which is the 6th largest.
It's also got more art, culture, and history than almost any other American city.
Seems perfect Amazon, you know what to do. We even have the eastcoast flagship Whole Foods store, and you guys just bought them.
It's got 1.5 million people, meeting the larger than 1m population requirement, and a metro area of over 4 million.
It's centrally located in an area that it is very easy to attact talent. It's less than 3 hours from New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. 5 hours from Boston and Pittsburgh.
It's also got the infrastructure. The city was developed to house and maintain living for 2 million residents, but the rust belt decline hit it hard and the population is now only 1.5 million.
It's on the East coast, which is probably the ideal location for doing business with Europe, and would be opposite the country of their original Seattle offices.
It's got a massive plot of land at the Navy Yard which is currently housing many exciting companies and is a massive economic driver, but it's also a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which means it's abated from nearly every Pennsylvania State Tax and Philadelphia City Tax, which is obviously going to be interesting to Amazon.
It's got a major international airport, a major international port, and sits on one of the greatest shipping hubs in the USA. Philadelphia is the 7th largest shipping hub, and it's an hour and a half from NYC/NJ which is the 6th largest.
It's also got more art, culture, and history than almost any other American city.
Seems perfect Amazon, you know what to do. We even have the eastcoast flagship Whole Foods store, and you guys just bought them.
7) Worst traffic you couldn't pay me to sit in. And I live on the I-95 corridor in CT.
Isn't Dfw technically closer to Fort Worth? Which based on my limited experience is a way cuter place.
Twilight Princess
Member
Why does the title say North America ? Is canada a serious consideration at all?