Amazon HQ2

[briantroutman]

Nearly every major city at least several hundred miles away from Seattle is a finalist.

That's the sense you get looking at the list, but when you look it on a map, you start to notice gaps.

Just in terms of major cities (metro areas over 2 million) that are east of the Rockies, there are some noticeable omissions. Houston's a big one. Detroit was suggested by numerous people as an ideal "bulldoze and build"  location; apparently not. Minneapolis and St. Paul aren't on the list. Tampa made at least a few so-called pundits "top picks"  lists, but it's not on the list.. And to listen to others, it was a done deal and Charlotte was the choice–but it was eliminated. Neither KC nor St. Louis were on the list, nor is Cincinnati, Cleveland, or Baltimore.

[Pink Jazz]

Looks like Phoenix is out as I expected.  Probably inadequate mass transit is what killed its chances.

Houston probably didn't make it because of Hurricane Harvey.

Portland and the San Francisco Bay area probably didn't make it because of their proximity to Seattle.

[kalvado]

Phoenix and Minneapolis could loose on climate basis. San Francisco and bay area are already overloaded...

[Pink Jazz]

Phoenix and Minneapolis could loose on climate basis. San Francisco and bay area are already overloaded...

As for climate, Miami made the list.  Miami doesn't get as hot as Phoenix temperature wise, but when you factor in the heat index, sometimes Miami can feel hotter.  In addition, Miami usually stays warmer in the winter than Phoenix.

[jeffandnicole]

When you look at lists like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas , you see the 11 sites within the top 10 metro areas are listed, with Houston being the exception.

However, after that, it appears at quick glance only 2 of the next 22 metro areas made the cut.

[triplemultiplex]

I wonder if the three locations in the DC area (DC proper, Northern VA, Montgomery County) portend further round of cuts to the list, resulting in the three jurisdictions competing/pooling resources for a super-plan (it's already been speculated that DC is the one due to Bezos' house purchase there and obvious government connections).

Three spots in the same metro?  Yeah, I think they've tipped their hand.

[Avalanchez71]

I think Nashville will win out on this one.  The legislature here in Tennessee is changing laws left and right to suit business interests.  The infrastructure is in place and we have a booming economy here to support such a facility.

[sparker]

It'll probably come down to Maryland vs. NoVa, with the prize going to whoever provides the most incentives (deferred taxes, zoning waivers, transit augmentation to the selected site, etc.) to Bezos and crew.  The potential to impress (or intimidate!) Congressfolks and federal regulators via a show of resources and wherewithal is probably too tempting for Amazon to pass up. 

[MisterSG1]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

To spell it out, Toronto doesn't get it because if they did, it'd be bad PR for Mr Bezos, as a certain individual who uses twitter will not be happy about this.

[Bruce]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

By that definition, no city has a soul. Seattle has a lively culture that has absorbed the tech scene over the last few decades and adapted to it, rather than trying to fight it.

[abefroman329]

I'm torn between being proud that Chicago made the top 20 and being disgusted that everything has to be run like it's a fucking reality show these days.

[MisterSG1]

I'm torn between being proud that Chicago made the top 20 and being disgusted that everything has to be run like it's a fucking reality show these days.

To be fair, the IOC has had a bidding process for the Olympics where a shortlist is created long before reality tv was ever dreamed of.

[MikeTheActuary]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

To spell it out, Toronto doesn't get it because if they did, it'd be bad PR for Mr Bezos, as a certain individual who uses twitter will not be happy about this.

I wonder how many of Amazon's past hires were in Seattle because of H1B visas.

[jakeroot]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

To spell it out, Toronto doesn't get it because if they did, it'd be bad PR for Mr Bezos, as a certain individual who uses twitter will not be happy about this.

I wonder how many of Amazon's past hires were in Seattle because of H1B visas.

That sums up a lot of the workforce on the west coast. Seattle is full of Asian nationals who have jobs working at tech companies. Not enough qualified workers in the area, I guess.

According to the wiki page on the H-1B visa, Microsoft and Amazon are numbers 1 and 3 (on the west coast) for most amount of H-1B employees.

[Scott5114]

I kind of hope Indianapolis gets it, so that OKC loses its shit over being beaten out by them for a major corporate facility a second time.

(Basically all of the cool stuff in downtown OKC was built in a fit of pique after losing a United Airlines maintenance facility to Indy in the early 90s. Then everyone was like "wtf I love downtown now" so we've just kind of kept on with it.)

I think Nashville will win out on this one.  The legislature here in Tennessee is changing laws left and right to suit business interests.  The infrastructure is in place and we have a booming economy here to support such a facility.

All of this is true of Oklahoma, yet OKC didn't make the cut. The problem is that changing laws to suit business interests tends to degrade quality-of-life interests, which larger corporations also take into account, as it directly impacts ease of recruitment.

Case in point, we cut a bunch of taxes to be business friendly. But we cut taxes too much, and now we can't pay for education. This is a major turn-off for out-of-state businesses, as it makes it more difficult to hire locally (lack of educated workforce) or recruit workers from out of state (what parent would want to move to a state where their children won't get a good education? the offer would have to be big enough to make private education affordable; i.e. too expensive for the company).

To spell it out, Toronto doesn't get it because if they did, it'd be bad PR for Mr Bezos, as a certain individual who uses twitter will not be happy about this.

From what I can tell by reading the output of the other famous Bezos-owned company, if Bezos arrived at a decision and came to believe that particular Twitter user would be upset by it, it would probably make him reach for the pen faster.

[abefroman329]

I'm torn between being proud that Chicago made the top 20 and being disgusted that everything has to be run like it's a fucking reality show these days.

To be fair, the IOC has had a bidding process for the Olympics where a shortlist is created long before reality tv was ever dreamed of.

To me this is far more embarrassing than anything done for the IOC.  Illinois agreed to take all the money it would otherwise receive from Amazon employees and give it back to Amazon.  To the best of my knowledge, no one offered so substantial a cash bribe to the IOC.

[TXtoNJ]

Someone made the point on Reddit that the HQ location has likely already been chosen internally, if not years ago, and that this whole bid process is just a charade to extract more concessions out of the pre-chosen winner. I'd agree with this assessment.

It'll either be Boston, DC, or Austin, IMO.

[kkt]

The difference between wooing big companies and wooing the Olympics is that the big companies *might* stick around for a while.  You know for sure the Olympics won't.

[abefroman329]

The difference between wooing big companies and wooing the Olympics is that the big companies *might* stick around for a while.  You know for sure the Olympics won't.

Right, which is why they try to sell it as "all this new infrastructure we're building will be a license to print money for the host city!"  Sometimes this is true, sometimes it isn't.

[bing101]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/26/amazon-spheres-indoor-rainforest-opens-monday.html

Here is an update Amazon's corporate offices are going to the new spheres building in Downtown Seattle.

[jwolfer]

Someone made the point on Reddit that the HQ location has likely already been chosen internally, if not years ago, and that this whole bid process is just a charade to extract more concessions out of the pre-chosen winner. I'd agree with this assessment.

It'll either be Boston, DC, or Austin, IMO.

I agree... I think Washington DC region is where they want.  Bezos owns the Washington Post already. Amazon has more power than the government already

Z981

[Bruce]

The spheres are merely an employee lounge and meeting space (with some restaurants), not where the offices are. The two (soon to be five) towers adjacent to them have the offices.

I got myself a reservation to see them in the first week of public tours. Pays to have connections.

[sparker]

Someone made the point on Reddit that the HQ location has likely already been chosen internally, if not years ago, and that this whole bid process is just a charade to extract more concessions out of the pre-chosen winner. I'd agree with this assessment.

It'll either be Boston, DC, or Austin, IMO.

I agree... I think Washington DC region is where they want.  Bezos owns the Washington Post already. Amazon has more power than the government already

Z981

Just great!  They'll move to NoVa, bring 40-50K more folks with them, resulting in more transportation money funneled to the area and leaving the outlying portions of the state higher & drier than they are today (the Roanoke folks who originally pressed for I-73 to come through their fair city probably won't live to see that project even off the ground!).  Oh well -- the rich (regions) get even richer; so it goes in these times!

[MisterSG1]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

By that definition, no city has a soul. Seattle has a lively culture that has absorbed the tech scene over the last few decades and adapted to it, rather than trying to fight it.

I don't know, but cities such as Seattle and San Francisco (which the techies have now exclusively rebranded as "SF") used to have cultural identity before, but have since been replaced by the sterile tech culture. In other words, what we like to call gentrification. That is how you ruin a city.

The grunge movement is slightly before your time, but Seattle not too long ago was associated with the grunge scene, like of course Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Let's not also mention that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle.

I once read that Amazon owns roughly 22% of all office space in Seattle, that seems to be quite shocking in my opinion. Perhaps Seattle ought to be remained "Amazonia".

I'll be blunt and say that I really dislike tech culture, and especially the title "software engineer" but that's a story for another day.

To spell it out, Toronto doesn't get it because if they did, it'd be bad PR for Mr Bezos, as a certain individual who uses twitter will not be happy about this.

From what I can tell by reading the output of the other famous Bezos-owned company, if Bezos arrived at a decision and came to believe that particular Twitter user would be upset by it, it would probably make him reach for the pen faster.

The problem is, like it or not, that certain Twitter user, whether you like it or not has strong support behind him. Indeed, look at what has happened regarding the National Football League for instance. Alienating a huge chunk of your customers is something you definitely DO NOT WANT to do.

[Bruce]

I think it's a no brainer that Toronto is out for obvious reasons, even though Toronto is more of the kind of place they belong. Techies have made SF and Seattle soulless and sterile places, and well, Toronto is a soulless place already.

By that definition, no city has a soul. Seattle has a lively culture that has absorbed the tech scene over the last few decades and adapted to it, rather than trying to fight it.

I don't know, but cities such as Seattle and San Francisco (which the techies have now exclusively rebranded as "SF") used to have cultural identity before, but have since been replaced by the sterile tech culture. In other words, what we like to call gentrification. That is how you ruin a city.

The grunge movement is slightly before your time, but Seattle not too long ago was associated with the grunge scene, like of course Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Let's not also mention that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle.

I once read that Amazon owns roughly 22% of all office space in Seattle, that seems to be quite shocking in my opinion. Perhaps Seattle ought to be remained "Amazonia".

I'll be blunt and say that I really dislike tech culture, and especially the title "software engineer" but that's a story for another day.

Don't believe everything you read from the national news media, or even the Seattle media for that matter. There is a noticeable bias against Amazon and the new wave of tech, but a hypocritical pass given to older tech (Microsoft, mainly). While Amazon does lease a lot of office space in Seattle proper (it only owns a handful of buildings), Seattle is very used to being a one-company town. In various eras, it was lumber, mining, shipbuilding, aerospace, and even tech. If Amazon were to rapidly downsize like Boeing did in the 1970s, Seattle would fare much better thanks to the diversification of the economy, which has been happening quietly while Amazon takes up new office space (and thus not displacing other industries).

Microsoft garnered the same complaints when it expanded on the Eastside in the early 1990s. Seattle did not lose its culture then (since this was as grunge and coffee culture were both booming) and it sure as hell isn't losing it now. There's still an active art community, though they have moved further from downtown and into more affordable neighborhoods, bringing their experiences to a different subset of people.

Without the influx and movement of people around the city, it can get really stale. Not to mention the social implications of blocking housing and progress in the name of gentrification and status quo, which only serves to shut out the poor who have nowhere else to go.