Cellbomber
Member
Baltimore/DC metro area or somewhere between is highly likely. 8 million plus people to pull from and a big presence in both cities already. 3 airports (2 international) only help out with clients and meetings.
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Amazon looking to build a second HQ in North America, will add 50k jobs
- Thread starter RastaMentality
- Start date
Baltimore/DC metro area or somewhere between is highly likely. 8 million plus people to pull from and a big presence in both cities already. 3 airports (2 international) only help out with clients and meetings.
adamantypants
Member
Logistics logic tells me either Memphis or Louisville. FedEx and UPS shipping headquarters respectively. Yeah Amazon has their own courier service most places but that shit has to get to their local warehouses somehow.
Infrastructure logic tells me some other major east coast hub, like somewhere in New Jersey for proximity to major metro areas while enjoying easier taxes.
Infrastructure logic tells me some other major east coast hub, like somewhere in New Jersey for proximity to major metro areas while enjoying easier taxes.
There is sizable gap in salary for development in Toronto, depending on the industry and your specialty. While some might "easily" clear $100k, there are plenty of people making $60k-$80k with 10+ years of experience.
Per WSJ article:
>1mm people
<45 minutes to international airport
College educated base
Can attract talent with the location
Bay Area deemphasized as too competitive
My guesses are
1. Research Triangle NC
2. Boston-Cambridge
3. Austin
4. Chicago
5. New York (Brooklyn)
Dark Horse - Los Angeles
>1mm people
<45 minutes to international airport
College educated base
Can attract talent with the location
Bay Area deemphasized as too competitive
My guesses are
1. Research Triangle NC
2. Boston-Cambridge
3. Austin
4. Chicago
5. New York (Brooklyn)
Dark Horse - Los Angeles
DC already has their cloud computing CS center here in Northern VA.
Dulles is also right next to it.
denpanosekai
Member
Keep me out of your love-in, I cancelled prime when they got rid of 20% on game preorders and amazonbasics products.
But I wouldn't protest against bringing 50K amazon jobs here
Hari Seldon
Member
Well according to this article, Chicago, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Boston, Dallas, and Columbus are said to be going for it.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/tec...adquarters-cities/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/tec...adquarters-cities/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
ChuckHoneywood
Banned
And will still shop at Amazon.
jeremy70583
Member
Per Twitter, Kansas City is making a "strong" big. I'm cautiously optimistic (no way in hell)
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
Every major city will. The Philly mayor already tweeted about it. You'd have to be daft as a mayor not to be on this immediately. It's all about who has the best pitch at this point, and frankly who can be ready to go the soonest. If they plan on building out 8,000,000 square feet of commercial office space in 10 years the work needs to literally start next year. For reference, it takes about 4 years to build a 1.5m sqft skyscraper. They'd need five of those. I think shovel-readiness is going to be a huge part of this. They're going to be looking for cities that have the space ready and available if they have any chance of doing it in 10 years.
St.Louis put in an offer also, though I don't think we have a chance.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
We got an Amazon warehouse just recently here in KC.
Also, the Overland Park area is 30 minutes from our airport - which is likely to get a MASSIVE renovation in the coming years. OP hosts all kinds of large companies - it's very corporate-friendly, is surrounded my multiple well-respected state colleges, and has great highway access.
Honestly? I could KC's bid being pretty dang strong and absolutely unique.
Glass Shark
Banned
Gotta hand it to Bezos for having the audacity to basically say Im the richest man in the world, but I want city and state governments to fall all over themselves to compete on who can give me the biggest tax breaks
Yeah, I actually do agree with that. It's basically "Woo me with your corporate welfare package and kneel before my awesomeness!"
Random Human
They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Think how attractive an Amazon job in Canada would be right now for tech people wanting to avoid America for the next three years. Come on Bezos, do it.
It's a publicly traded company; it's not just Bezos asking to have cities "woo" amazon. It's also the standard practice for every large company expanding or moving.
The tax breaks aren't for Bezos personally lol. It's not really "audacity" either, it's the charter of pretty much every publicly traded company to seek profitable situations.
The tax breaks aren't for Bezos personally lol. It's not really "audacity" either, it's the charter of pretty much every publicly traded company to seek profitable situations.
Randolph Freelander
Member
That. Capitalists going to capitalize. Governments decide whether or not they'll play ball (or even allow the game to be played).
Nooo don't, haha. Housing is already impossible to find, imagine how fucked it would be with that many people moving here buying houses, in addition to the current swarm of people
Gosh you're kidding. I thought it was for him personally.
Most companies don't usually hold a public contest for their bribing and it not being Bezo's personal tax break doesn't change the burden or make it any easier for the place they decide to land.
Crash55118
Member
Yes, yes they do? Amazon is just doing it in a pretty public way, and 50k jobs is an absurd amount of jobs to bring in at once.
I'm from Minnesota, and am glad the Governor has already said he is looking into creating a proposal. Literally give them TCAAP as it has been finished being cleaned up and is a large parcel of land in an urban center that could be developed any way they'd like.
Uh, yeah, I think that's what I just said.
entremet
Member
Invest in mass transit? I know its Texas so it wont happen lol.
Gosh, it's almost like someone personally brought up Bezos and his wealth and him asking for a tax break and I was commenting on that.
And yes, all companies do this sort of bidding war. Why does the fact the RFP is public even really change anything? I'm pretty sure those types of documents aren't usually secured, they just wouldn't make the national news, which might be due to WaPo/Bezos connection in this case.
And this attitude that bringing 50k high paying jobs to an area is purely a "burden" is not shared by everyone; it will be a boon for all kinds of people.. including loads of local businesses not directly tied to amazon. What would you rather have, jobs leaving an area, everything staying exactly the same everywhere? What's the solution to the "burden" of a local economy expanding?
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
I think Amazon has realized the sorts of headaches they've caused in Seattle related to traffic, and the lack of major transit infrastructure. That means major cities with major transportation networks are a more likely bet. DC, Atlanta, Philly, Chicago, NYC, Boston, San Francisco, and a few others have that. They'll also want to avoid cities that are more expensive than Seattle, so I think that's going to wipe out the entire rest of the west coast, Boston, and NYC.
I think my short list would be Atlanta, Chicago, and Philly. Probably somewhere in Texas would be an option as well. Dark horse candidates are going to be places like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Research Triangle area.
For some reason I just don't see DC, but not for any real justifiable reason.
I think my short list would be Atlanta, Chicago, and Philly. Probably somewhere in Texas would be an option as well. Dark horse candidates are going to be places like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Research Triangle area.
For some reason I just don't see DC, but not for any real justifiable reason.
Human Resources
Member
Come on down to New Orleans!
Use our Whole Foods as test markets for restaurant supply. Use your engineers to help the city with its unique water problems -- I bet there's some money to be made in weatherproofing tech in this country after this hurricane season. Invest in large scale 3d printing and help rebuild still-damaged neighborhoods -- you can get huge swaths of East New Orleans for almost nothing I bet and be right in the city. We have a great port if you'd like to be right by another Prime shipping hub (maybe we could get that sweet Prime Now as well?).
We are a modern city with a unique culture. The metro area is over 1m population-wise, all relatively close to each other and it's pretty easy to get around, in comparison to larger suggestions. You want to test self-driving cars under sub-optimal conditions? We got that covered and then some! We just added direct flights to London and are building a new terminal at Louis Armstrong International, you could probably swoop in with some extra cash and have some branding on-site. We have world-class dining and nightlife. Our tourism board will do half of your recruiting for you, enticing candidates from Austin and Atlanta to come on down as well. We have tons of tax incentives as well. Memphis is used as a major logistics hub for the region. I'd argue that with our port and river infrastructure, New Orleans could be transformed into a distribution center for the entire southeast region, as well as parts of Texas, Mexico, and the many nearby islands of the Atlantic.
Plus Bezos can start his own Krewe for Carnival and literally be worshipped as a god king in a parade that he holds once a year for himself. Just put a voucher into all the parade throws for a year of free Prime and they will come.
P.S. Open up a Dat Dog in your HQ food court and no one will ever want to leave.
Use our Whole Foods as test markets for restaurant supply. Use your engineers to help the city with its unique water problems -- I bet there's some money to be made in weatherproofing tech in this country after this hurricane season. Invest in large scale 3d printing and help rebuild still-damaged neighborhoods -- you can get huge swaths of East New Orleans for almost nothing I bet and be right in the city. We have a great port if you'd like to be right by another Prime shipping hub (maybe we could get that sweet Prime Now as well?).
We are a modern city with a unique culture. The metro area is over 1m population-wise, all relatively close to each other and it's pretty easy to get around, in comparison to larger suggestions. You want to test self-driving cars under sub-optimal conditions? We got that covered and then some! We just added direct flights to London and are building a new terminal at Louis Armstrong International, you could probably swoop in with some extra cash and have some branding on-site. We have world-class dining and nightlife. Our tourism board will do half of your recruiting for you, enticing candidates from Austin and Atlanta to come on down as well. We have tons of tax incentives as well. Memphis is used as a major logistics hub for the region. I'd argue that with our port and river infrastructure, New Orleans could be transformed into a distribution center for the entire southeast region, as well as parts of Texas, Mexico, and the many nearby islands of the Atlantic.
Plus Bezos can start his own Krewe for Carnival and literally be worshipped as a god king in a parade that he holds once a year for himself. Just put a voucher into all the parade throws for a year of free Prime and they will come.
P.S. Open up a Dat Dog in your HQ food court and no one will ever want to leave.
It will be a boon to some and a burden to others wherever they go. The "solution" is for them to expand somewhere and not ask to suck local resources dry for next to nothing. Of course I do realize I'm asking for Heaven and Earth to be moved for that be be realized in our society.
So you are saying there is a chance?
Crash55118
Member
I guess a better way of putting it would be the 50k jobs part doing a good job at creating buzz in the media.
They included the fact they are looking for incentives in their proposal; but bringing 50k jobs would likely more than make up foe any incentives they receive. Including money flowing into local businesses and income or sales taxation on the 50k new employees and their spending. That's the reason they can ask for incentives and the fact they are a publicly traded company implies they are bound to their stockholders to look for such deals.
Sucking resources dry... what do you even mean by that?
The most interesting fact to me at this point is that they say North America, and not simply America.
Toronto would be a good bet. Outside of the US it's probably the most likely choice, considering the location of the city, infrastructure and the large talent pool.
But hey, the only other likely non-US option in North America besides Toronto would be Montreal, and that would be great too. Still large talent pool (+ 4M people in the metro area), large university town, agressive gvt subsidies for tech jobs, lower costs than Toronto and close to major East Coast cities.
Toronto would be a good bet. Outside of the US it's probably the most likely choice, considering the location of the city, infrastructure and the large talent pool.
But hey, the only other likely non-US option in North America besides Toronto would be Montreal, and that would be great too. Still large talent pool (+ 4M people in the metro area), large university town, agressive gvt subsidies for tech jobs, lower costs than Toronto and close to major East Coast cities.
It does suck right now. I can't buy a damn house right now because of how bad our market has become.
That said, the infrastructure that would be built to support the headquarters could be huge. We all know I-25 needs some serious upgrades and the light rail system needs a mass expansion.
Well, DC is generally more expensive than Seattle. That would be one. Although maybe not for tech jobs.
Randolph Freelander
Member
Note to Sacramento: incentives cannot be paid in the form of cowbells.
Thanks for the little blurb but I know what the rules are when it comes to stakeholders. It changes nothing about what I said.
You do realize wherever they go public infrastructure has to be built right? You also should realize Amazon won't be paying for it or the upkeep of it. Now, you can make the argument that the benefits outweigh the burden and maybe they will but it's hardly guaranteed based on past histories with other companies.
Sacramento makes zero sense for Amazon though. A second headquarters on the west coast? A smallish metro area?
No matter the money they're promised, they'll go to or near a large city on the east coast or Midwest, or Texas.
A city + 50,000 high paying Amazon jobs is better for a city's finances and general state than a city without those 50,000 jobs, period. Go ask the tens of cities that will go lick Amazon's boots to get these jobs.