Amazon HQ2 thread
 

Amazon said Thursday it plans to open another headquarters in North America and spend more than $5 billion for its construction and operation.

The company, based in Seattle, said it has yet to zero in on a location but expects to expand the new headquarters to include up to 50,000 high-paying jobs.

Amazon said its new headquarters should be located in a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people and one that can attract and retain technical talent.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compa...WTQ?li=BBnbfcL

This is really important news. Amazon has been huge for Seattle and could have a similar effect on another city. I hate to start a city v. city thread but my personal choices would be Chicago (old post office) or Philadelphia (Schuylkill Yards) but can also see big corporate cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, and Boston in the mix as well.

It will be interesting to see what kind of economic development incentives are thrown at Amazon by competing municipalities.

Yeah everyone is talking about this now. If they put 50,000 jobs into a downtown somewhere it will be huge for whatever city that is.

Personally, I expect they'll pick a US city east of the Mississippi, in the >3 million range. It has to have a good airport and a good large university nearby. I'd love to see them go to Detroit, but I predict they'll take a city that's already on the cusp and push it into superstardom. Philly or Pittsburgh. Maybe Atlanta.

Rumor here is that the Research Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) area is high on the list. 2.2 million CSA and growing fast, major research universities (Duke, UNC, NC State), one of the most educated places (% degree holders and % of post-grad degrees), good interstates and international airport with several Europe non-stops, other major tech firms here (Lenovo, Citrix, SAS, Cisco, Red Hat, etc.)

I hate this type of corporate welfare and hope that Amazon picks the best city for their needs not whatever city/state offers the largest incentive package.

Philly would be a nice choice IMO.

I'd rather see it in a core of a city in a walkable or transit friendly location compared to somewhere outside the city-limits, in nearby burbs. People forget that 20,000 new commuters or in this case up to and exceeding 50k can really destroy certain highways. Thats a lot of extra cars.

Or, an alternative... Delaware? Wilmington? Could be good talent wise to attract tri-state or DC type talent. Not much of a move if relocations concerned. Plus it could really help a very cute, small-sized city grow and as a catalyst for future growth.

The Research Triangle in NC does seem like a natural choice due to all the reasons initiald stated. The state was also pretty quick to repeal that bathroom bill so maybe they know more than what they're letting on.

Amazon Hq2 - And the Nominees are . . . .
 

The competition for the MASSIVE Amazon HQ2 is on:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...3-Headquarters

Let the nominations begin!

I vote Denver!!

There's been talk of Re-developing the huge amusement park and surrounding parking lots right next to Downtown, light rail, with Airport rail nearby.

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/...re-id464281782

HMMMMM why was my original thread deleted????

That sounds like Chicago. Very liberal CEO. I'm ruling out states that went Trump.

My guess for finalists, in no particular order -

1. DC-VA-MD
2. Chicago
3. Dallas
4. Atlanta
5. Detroit (dark horse contender)

Wonder why they mention North America and not just the US. They might be leaving their options open to expand into Canada (they have been a huge presence recently in office expansion in Vancouver) given the political situation in the States and the difficultly obtaining work visas for foreign workers. The numbers being thrown out are probably best case scenario but still massively impressive for whichever city lands this. And I concur, hope they go with the best city and not the one that offers the most incentives.

I do wonder whether there will a "preference" to go east or south, given their current Hq1 in Seattle.

I think that Bezos will want the second HQ on the east coast.

I think the top contenders are:

NY (Bezos has an apartment there; financial capital of the world; unparalleled access to Europe and Middle East; lots of tech talent, including, Columbia and the new Tech Center). Amazon bought the building on 34th St and is building a huge new facility on SI. This is tailor-made for NY.

Boston (great tech talent)

Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago will offer enormous incentives.

Vancouver would seem to be extremely unlikely given insane housing costs and proximity to Seattle. Probably the least likely major metro.

And I doubt Amazon would make long-range plans based on a short-term problem (Trump).

A friend of mine who worked for Amazon in Seattle for many years predicts Ohio. My bias requires me to root for Chicago, but not if it means giving them a ridiculous incentive package like what Foxconn got. I agree that it will be east of the Mississippi and since they said North America instead of the United States you can't rule out Toronto or Montreal, although I would think that is unlikely.

i think eastern half of the nation is probably correct.

50,000 jobs is a stupid large number, only the biggest metros will be able to adequately supply that many people.

my best guesses: NYC, boston, philly, DC, chicago, detroit, atlanta, dallas, houston

Here in Philly would be pretty perfect.

The Navy Yard literally ticks every box of their requirements:
30 Mile proximity to population center: It's IN the city.
45 Minute proximity to international airport: It's about 15 minutes drive from the airport, or you can take mass transit.
1-2 Miles from Major highways: It sits basically ON I-95
Close to Major arterial roads: Within 10 minutes of 295, NJ Turnpike, I-76
Access to mass transit at site: Bus routes to site, subway stop a 5 minute shuttle ride from site
500,000 sqft of development space: Currently prepped for 4,000,000 sqft of office development, shovel ready
Up to 8,000,000 Sq Ft of Development space beyond 2027: 13.5 Million square feet of space at full build out.

Literally every box ticked, in a Keystone Opportunity Zone tax haven. The city could justify a BSL expansion to the Navy Yard with this sort of development, so they could throw that in as a deal sweetener.

You can't seriously believe that it's rational to immediately reduce the list of Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philly to one single contender by such an arbitrary criterion.

Just looking at the breakdown of talent they want I think it has to be a huge metro like Atlanta/Chicago/Dallas/Philly/DC. Engineers, executives, legal, accounting, etc. They need everything and a lot of it. I don't think any of the mid-tier cities could fulfill those requirements not to mention the non-trivial challenge of having enough space for 50K people in 10 years without causing a housing crisis like they've already done in Seattle.

I think Boston is a nope because of size. NYC probably too expensive and time will be a problem.