Amazon HQ2

[LM117]

Amazon's press release.

https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazon-selects-new-york-city-and-northern-virginia-for-new-headquarters

[1995hoo]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."  I think I'll call it "Reagan National Landing"  just to irk the people who don't like it when you say "Reagan Airport."

[oscar]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."  I think I'll call it "Reagan National Landing"  just to irk the people who don't like it when you say "Reagan Airport."

Those people would include the local governments that are subsidizing the Amazon project, and would rather you call the airport by its old name "National Airport". It took an Act of Congress to jam the Reagan airport name down their throats.

[jakeroot]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."  I think I'll call it "Reagan National Landing"  just to irk the people who don't like it when you say "Reagan Airport."

I've been talking to my mom all day and we cannot figure out what the hell they're talking about...National Landing?? My first thought was some development like National Harbor but no one's bothered to mention "National Landing" until now.

[Jmiles32]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."  I think I'll call it "Reagan National Landing"  just to irk the people who don't like it when you say "Reagan Airport."

I've been talking to my mom all day and we cannot figure out what the hell they're talking about...National Landing?? My first thought was some development like National Harbor but no one's bothered to mention "National Landing" until now.

Wouldn't be surprised if the name "National Landing" was somewhat influenced by wanting to be associated with the popular and prosperous National Harbor just down the river.

Here are some of the likely transportation improvements the area will see as a result:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/amazons-hq2-could-be-boon-or-bust-for-metro-and-the-regions-transportation-infrastructure/2018/11/13/748efa5c-e2d3-11e8-b759-3d88a5ce9e19_story.html?utm_term=.7c18c963f87c

Virginia, Arlington and Alexandria said they were spending more than half a billion dollars to support Amazon's plans, much of it on existing projects. The plans included an additional entrance to the Crystal City Metro station and a second entrance for the planned Potomac Yard station.

The plans also include a pedestrian bridge from Reagan National Airport to Crystal City and a transit-way expansion in a corridor with the region's only bus rapid transit system, along with improvements to Route 1.

Arlington and Alexandria's pledged investments totaled $570 million, while Virginia said it was investing $195 million in improvements; the funding would go to new projects and the expansion of existing ones. The plan would tie new transportation funding levels from the state to the number of jobs Amazon creates.

Overall very excited that half of HQ2 is coming to NOVA. Since there are obviously limited highway improvements that can be done due to the physical constraints of the area, improvements to Metro and VRE need to be on the top of the list.

[Flint1979]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

[abefroman329]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

The conspiracy theorist in me says no.

[MikieTimT]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

The conspiracy theorist in me says no.

All just a ruse to pump up the tax breaks.  And it'll probably work again when they need a couple more satellite offices elsewhere in the country.

[ET21]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

I'm sure they knew 3 months ago.... so conspiracy me thinks no 

[LM117]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

The conspiracy theorist in me says no.

All just a ruse to pump up the tax breaks.  And it'll probably work again when they need a couple more satellite offices elsewhere in the country.

Agreed. There's no way in hell it took this long for Bezos to make up his mind. Almost everybody knew from the start HQ2 would go to NoVA since Congress is right next door. The only real plot twist was the decision to split HQ2, along with Nashville being thrown a bone.

[jeffandnicole]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

The conspiracy theorist in me says no.

All just a ruse to pump up the tax breaks.  And it'll probably work again when they need a couple more satellite offices elsewhere in the country.

Agreed. There’s no way in hell it took this long for Bezos to make up his mind. Almost everybody knew from the start HQ2 would go to NoVA since Congress is right next door. The only real plot twist was the decision to split HQ2, along with Nashville being thrown a bone.

I'd like to go back a year ago and see if truly "everybody knew".  Because while there were some strong prospects, it was hardly a given.

[abefroman329]

It really took them that long to choose NYC and DC?

The conspiracy theorist in me says no.

All just a ruse to pump up the tax breaks.  And it'll probably work again when they need a couple more satellite offices elsewhere in the country.

Considering one of the incentives Illinois offered Amazon was that Amazon could keep the state taxes its employees in Illinois would have otherwise paid to Illinois, that employees' earnings in Illinois literally would've gone back to Amazon, I'm perfectly fine with them not choosing Illinois.

[paulthemapguy]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

[hotdogPi]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Amazon could completely fund two Long Island bridges: one to New Jersey and one to Connecticut. $40 million is almost nothing to them.

[MikieTimT]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Amazon could completely fund two Long Island bridges: one to New Jersey and one to Connecticut. $40 million is almost nothing to them.

If only bridges were that cheap these days.  And Amazon doesn't get to spend shareholder money in ways like that.

[formulanone]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Drone delivery, even though we're realistically 10+ years away from that replacing traditional delivery methods.

[Doctor Whom]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."

If people could be persuaded to refer to "North Bethesda" unironically, anything is possible.

[briantroutman]

All just a ruse to pump up the tax breaks.

That's the oft-repeated narrative, but the evidence would suggest otherwise.

Among the top 20 finalists, neither New York nor Virginia were anywhere near the top. NY's $1.5 billion and VA's roughly $600 million were dwarfed by the $7 billion offered by New Jersey and over $8 billion offered by Maryland. It's notable that in both cases, Amazon still would have landed in the same metro areas (NYC and Washington, respectively) if they had taken the much more generous NJ or MD offers.

[1995hoo]

Amazon is calling Crystal City "National Landing."  I think I'll call it "Reagan National Landing"  just to irk the people who don't like it when you say "Reagan Airport."

I've been talking to my mom all day and we cannot figure out what the hell they're talking about...National Landing?? My first thought was some development like National Harbor but no one's bothered to mention "National Landing" until now.

It's a new name. Nobody here has ever heard "National Landing"  before (I've lived here since 1974). The news last night said Alexandria and Arlington came up with the name as a way of referring to the entire area of Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Potomac Yard as a single area, I guess to emphasize how they're all close to each other.

I saw something yesterday joking that the Nationals will move to a new ballpark there and rebrand themselves as the National Landing Nationals and that they'd then become the airport's corporate sponsor, which led me to joke that the airport would become "Ronald Reagan National Landing Nationals Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport."  

[vdeane]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Amazon could completely fund two Long Island bridges: one to New Jersey and one to Connecticut. $40 million is almost nothing to them.

Long Island City is a neighborhood in Queens right next to Manhattan (although it is on geographic Long Island, just not the part the post people think of when they think of Long Island).  Those bridges would be a little too far east to help.

The people in the neighborhood ARE against it, but because they think they money spent on incentives would be better spent directly investing in the community.

[AlexandriaVA]

I'm sure that I'll continue to call it Crystal City, much like I still call the nearby airport as "National" out of habit, but to prove it has nothing to do with politics, I still call the arena on 7th St in DC the "MCI Center".

What's funny is that some of my friends would give me a hard time for calling it the MCI Center rather than the "Verizon Center", but recently some of those same friends have slipped up, by calling it the Verizon Center rather than the "Capital One Arena"

[Beltway]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Not Long Island, but Long Island City.  Western Queens, right across the river from Manhattan.

[kevinb1994]

It's quite possible Long Island is logistically the worst possible place they could have put an HQ.  Getting through NYC is damn near impossible from a freight standpoint.  Way to dump an unneeded load on an already expensive and stretched-thin transportation system.  Not to mention the people of NYC are more likely to revile at an installation of a new Amazon HQ than the people of most anywhere else in America, if I'm reading the situation correctly.

Not Long Island, but Long Island City.  Eastern Queens, right across the river from Manhattan.

I think you meant Western Queens.

[Rothman]

Queens is on Long Island.

*ducks and runs*

[Beltway]

It's a new name. Nobody here has ever heard "National Landing"  before (I've lived here since 1974). The news last night said Alexandria and Arlington came up with the name as a way of referring to the entire area of Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Potomac Yard as a single area, I guess to emphasize how they're all close to each other.

Read it and weep.     
https://nationallanding.com/

What is a "landing" anyhow?  A waterfront area with dockage can utilize this term and it has been done in the past.