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Amazon looking to build a second HQ in North America, will add 50k jobs

M

mantis23

Member
Detroit is already in the middle of an amazing rebound. Plenty of tech companies already starting to buy up space downtown. Abundance of young talent in the area. DO IT AMAZON.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Draxal said:
Trust me Im fromthe area, they have won some of them.

I'm expecting this to go to the southeast though.
Click to expand...

Who was the last big player we attracted?

I know CT got a lot of the hedge funds but that was rather since the fatcats lived in CT anyway lol. No more commute to the city!
 
G

gutshot

Member
shnurgleton said:
Which east coast cities both have a large talent base and are the ripest for extreme gentrification?

Maybe...Durham NC?

Though I could definitely see Bezos even more thoroughly gentrifying Boston.
Click to expand...

Durham is already getting gentrified. But I can definitely see Amazon coming here and accelerating that pace. Research Triangle Park, right outside of Durham and Raleigh, is already setup to house these kinds of corporate headquarters. Tons of talent coming out of the universities here and they can poach from IBM, SAS, Cisco, Lenovo, etc. etc.
 
D

Draxal

Member
Hari Seldon said:
Toronto would have to be willing to play the tax break/free real-estate game. It looks like from the Washington Post article that Amazon is basically saying for cities to bid for the most free shit. That is why I don't see large cities like NYC or Toronto getting this. The smaller cities with the most to gain are the ones who are going to pony up the most.
Click to expand...

It's not even cities that bid, its state government.

entremet said:
Who was the last big player we attracted?

I know CT got a lot of the hedge funds but that was rather since the fatcats lived in CT anyway lol. No more commute to the city!
Click to expand...

Not so much attracted, but retained.
 
H

harriet the spy

Member
I'm betting boston. They have lots of people already. It's a city with loads of educated people and comparatively cheaper than other larger cities.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Tech needs to expand. The fact that they are siloing too many people in one location has been generally problematic with housing and whatnot. They should pick somewhere more up and coming rather than current high growth, because they will drive the city.
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
It'd be nice if they built this in the mid-west area to not continue to pile on 'coastal elite' for tech companies. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit

i_am_ben said:
Is a second HQ really advantageous?
Click to expand...

A lot of companies have major offices all over the country. Google and Microsoft both have huge offices in NYC
 
D

darkhunger

Member
Hari Seldon said:
Toronto would have to be willing to play the tax break/free real-estate game. It looks like from the Washington Post article that Amazon is basically saying for cities to bid for the most free shit. That is why I don't see large cities like NYC or Toronto getting this. The smaller cities with the most to gain are the ones who are going to pony up the most.
Click to expand...

It's Amazon we're talking about and so they probably want to attract the best talent for their HQ#2.

They're not going to be able to put this in some random small city USA. It'll be one of the big cities for sure because that's where the top talents go.
 
E

Entropia

No One Remembers
If it's not a city that's already a major tech hub, I'd hate to be living there.

You take a medium size city, and Amazon decides they want to be there. Suddenly you have this huge influx of high paid devs, engineers, etc., it'd drive up the cost of housing immensely.
 
S

SillyEskimo

Member
Dead Prince said:
amazon felt the tweet.

LAFZrbw.png
Click to expand...

fixed
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Atlanta would be a good spot for their content creation teams. Plus a nice big airport nearby. Do it Amazon, do it.
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
"tax exemptions and other incentives"
"metropolitan areas with more than a million people"

So Texas is in the running.
 
F

Friggz

Member
Im gonna go with northern virginia. Their primary aws datacenter is in my backyard, and we are already a pseudo east coast silicon valley. They have a full lease on the old booz allen building and the tech talent here rivals the valley (IMO)
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Considering they bought Whole Foods and the pool of quickly growing software developers regionally, I'd say Austin makes a good fit.

FullMetalx117 said:
My bet is on Texas. Austin or Dallas specifically
Click to expand...

And this. Texas basically pays companies to build or move HQs to Texas.
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Super biased, but Toronto is a big contender. We have some of the best software talent in the world coming out of our universities, and all 3 levels of government are doing a big tech push. Our AI game is on point too.

Also, Toronto is the largest growing tech city in North America.

https://techvibes.com/2017/07/20/toronto-is-the-fastest-growing-tech-market-in-north-america

Toronto has been named the fastest growing tech market in North America by the CBRE’s 2017 North American Scoring Tech Talent report. The city even beat out the technology hotbeds of San Francisco and New York City combined, shooting up from 12th to sixth in an overall annual ranking. From 2015 to 2016, Toronto added 22,500 new technology jobs, compared to 5,370 for New York and 11,540 for San Francisco. Toronto also ranked as the second-cheapest market with high quality talent for a technology firm to operate. When you consider the costs of hiring talent and finding real estate, it costs about $26 million (all figures USD) to run a 500 person technology company in Toronto, well below the lowest US city’s cost for the same thing, $34 million in Oklahoma City.
Click to expand...
 
D

Dr. Feel Good

Banned
Deadly Cyclone said:
Des Moines is one of the best places for young professionals. Be a perfect fit.
Click to expand...

The talent isn't there. There's no amazing computer science programs even close to Des Moines (Madison probably being the closest). There's also very little tech scene as it's predomintely built on insurance. And they would struggle to convince people to move there when Minneapolis, Chicsgo and hell even Kansas City are right down the road.

They need space, nearby quality universities and/or tech hubs to get talent, and far enough from Seattle to make it unique. I would love for it to be in LA given their movie studios are here but I just don't think the city can house that many people.

My guesses:

1. Charlotte, NC. Very low cost of living. Major hub in the Southeast. Ripe with talent thanks to Durham and Raleigh. East coast advantage (time, distance, etc)

2. Boston, MA. Certainly expensive and not as much available land but I think being near Cambridge (MIT and Harvard) could be beneficial as I think they will expand into more research.

3. Minneapolis, MN. Absolutely crush Target and Best Buy in their home town. Plenty of Fortune 500 companies including 3M. I also think they will expand into health which Minnesota is the epicenter of. Pretty low cost of living and tons of space.

Wild cards would be Pittsburgh or a Chicago
 
D

Draxal

Member
JaggedSac said:
Atlanta would be a good spot for their content creation teams. Plus a nice big airport nearby. Do it Amazon, do it.
Click to expand...


People are underestimating the need of a major international airport for Amazon.

And Georgia as a state definitely has greased some wheels in he past.
 
Wulfric

Wulfric

Member
Another vote for Milwaukee here; it's right to their Kenosha distribution center and it would be way cheaper than operating in Chicago. They can poach grads from the nearby colleges and raise everyone's home values at the same time.

It would be hilarious if they decide to hunker down in Target's hometown of Minneapolis. I can see them doing that.
 
S

smisk

Member
Friggz said:
Im gonna go with northern virginia. Their primary aws datacenter is in my backyard, and we are already a pseudo east coast silicon valley. They have a full lease on the old booz allen building and the tech talent here rivals the valley (IMO)
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking this too. It'd provide a good alternative to all the defense/govt tech jobs around here. Though personally I'd rather see it go to a city that really needs it, like Detroit.
 
P

Pastry

Banned
teh_pwn said:
Considering they bought Whole Foods and the pool of quickly growing software developers regionally, I'd say Austin makes a good fit.



And this. Texas basically pays companies to build or move HQs to Texas.
Click to expand...

I absolutely can't see a HQ this size functioning in Austin as it stands today, the infrastructure just isn't there to support the size and employees. I do think it'll be Texas though, just not Austin.
 
O

oneHeero

Member
Maybe San Antonio could work. Toyota opened a plant here, NSA has a building here, and we have a tech company, plus, our population is enough. It seems like a lot of businesses have been coming to Texas, too.
 
F

Friggz

Member
smisk said:
Yeah I was thinking this too. It'd provide a good alternative to all the defense/govt tech jobs around here. Though personally I'd rather see it go to a city that really needs it, like Detroit.
Click to expand...

absolutely. id much rather they go to a city that needs it.
 
Pagusas

Pagusas

Elden Member
Come to Dallas, please come to Dallas. I love being the Mecca for all business here. So easy to change jobs whenever you want.
 
M

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
Alcotholic said:
Put it in bum fuck America. Revitalize a dying town and bring jobs somewhere that needs it. People will move there.
Click to expand...

I think this is a great idea. Those cities where they expect coal to magically return? Bring in Amazon. BOOM! Jobs.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
Pastry said:
I absolutely can't see a HQ this size functioning in Austin as it stands today, the infrastructure just isn't there to support the size and employees. I do think it'll be Texas though, just not Austin.
Click to expand...

If it goes to Texas, it'll be DFW. That's Texas' networking/IT industry and it has the space.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Pastry said:
I absolutely can't see a HQ this size functioning in Austin as it stands today, the infrastructure just isn't there to support the size and employees. I do think it'll be Texas though, just not Austin.
Click to expand...

This:
It added that the location does not need to in an urban or downtown location, or a development-prepped site.
Click to expand...

makes me think somewhere along 130 or 183A. The latter has metro rail.
 
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