It Sounds Like Amazon Is Closing In on a Location for Its New Headquarters

Megalith

Megalith

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While 20 places are still in the running, a report by the Wall Street Journal suggests that Amazon may be narrowing its sights on five locations for its new headquarters: these include Newark, NJ, New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Washington D.C., all of which have been visited by executives the past couple of months.

Economic development experts anticipate that wherever Amazon decides to bring its HQ2 will also bring along new business, skilled workers and higher real estate prices. Amazon has already narrowed its list twice and is expected to deliver its decision by the end of the year. Some locations, like Miami and Washington D.C.-area cities, have reportedly heard follow-ups from Amazon in recent months, while cities like Raleigh, N.C. have not, the Journal reported.
 
As an individual who lives in the Raleigh-Durham area; I'll be happy if they don't choose Raleigh. Housing costs and availability have already become more of an issue from just the existing tech boom without Amazon (or Apple who is also contemplating opening a campus here).
 
I'm going to laugh pretty hard when, after building their new headquarters, Amazon announces that they will be "reducing staffing" in Seattle to "avoid redundancies" with their new HQ.
 
i fully understand the reasons why you would NOT do this.... but if it were me i would be putting it in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the US in a place that would give me the best possible tax incentives combined with the absolute lowest cost of re-estate and development.

you would literally be able to get anything you wanted that way.
 
Please don't be Dallas. The traffic is horrible already, and the housing costs have gone off the chart. I can no longer afford to move anywhere locally. If I was shopping for a new home today I wouldn't be able to afford the house I'm already in. I'd love to downsize but can't afford to move.
 
Burticus said:
Please don't be Dallas. The traffic is horrible already, and the housing costs have gone off the chart. I can no longer afford to move anywhere locally. If I was shopping for a new home today I wouldn't be able to afford the house I'm already in. I'd love to downsize but can't afford to move.
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funny enough, im moving out that way in about a month and those are the EXACT reasons i avoided the entire DFW area lol
 
Burticus said:
Please don't be Dallas. The traffic is horrible already, and the housing costs have gone off the chart. I can no longer afford to move anywhere locally. If I was shopping for a new home today I wouldn't be able to afford the house I'm already in. I'd love to downsize but can't afford to move.
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Absolutely 100% this. Go put your HQ somewhere else and trash that city.

No one believes your garbage about bringing 50,000 jobs to the area. They're all super crap outsourced jobs anyway. I buy almost everything on amazon, so this will sound really hypocritical, but eff that company in the goat ass
 
Most of the non Amazon jobs will be minimum wage type jobs for restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and such. Very likely that after the bribe price is added to the increased costs for infrastructure and social problems like folks who can no longer afford to live there, the 'winning' city will wind up losing.
 
Madoc said:
I'm going to laugh pretty hard when, after building their new headquarters, Amazon announces that they will be "reducing staffing" in Seattle to "avoid redundancies" with their new HQ.
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I will not be laughing. I will be cracking more than one open in celebration :) Take the tech money elsewhere please. Ruin somebody else's commute
 
I don't get why 3 out of the 5 listed cities are even there. The cost of living is high except for maybe Miami or Chicago. So many other cities would be a better fit imo.
 
Cost of Living is one of their criteria, but not one of the major ones.
They want to be near a place that has a large education environment to draw new hires from, a good mass transit system, close to major internal air hubs, liberal. Cost of living is a second tier consideration.
 
Randall Stephens said:
I will not be laughing. I will be cracking more than one open in celebration :) Take the tech money elsewhere please. Ruin somebody else's commute
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The commute isn't being ruined by Amazon. It's being ruined by a City Hall that's waging war on cars and by a regional government which refuses to invest in appropriate infrastructure. This is an issue that pre-dates Amazon's rise in Seattle as a major employer.
 
It’s not going to be DC, the traffic is already bad enough unless they are 15 miles away but somehow still in the DC Metro Area.

It’ll probably be like the Olympics, where it’ll never pay for itself.
 
Madoc said:
The commute isn't being ruined by Amazon. It's being ruined by a City Hall that's waging war on cars and by a regional government which refuses to invest in appropriate infrastructure. This is an issue that pre-dates Amazon's rise in Seattle as a major employer.
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You're right. It's really all the damn Californians coming here to escape high housing costs.
 
Randall Stephens said:
You're right. It's really all the damn Californians coming here to escape high housing costs.
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Don't forget fucking up your property values too because we have a higher mentality of what a house should cost and can probably outbid most anyone locally :)
 
Look at all the cities that want to service the Amazon phallus.

Tax cuts, premium deals etc, all under the guise of "jobs" (that pay shit and treat workers like crap).

Can we stop being big biz bitches already?
 
ryamkajr said:
Cost of Living is one of their criteria, but not one of the major ones.
They want to be near a place that has a large education environment to draw new hires from, a good mass transit system, close to major internal air hubs, liberal. Cost of living is a second tier consideration.
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Ding. That's why most of the spots listed are in the NE part of the country. That's one of the reasons why upstate NY is quietly becoming a major tech nexus, given it's proximity to all those items while also having relatively low cost of living.
 
harbingerofdoom said:
i fully understand the reasons why you would NOT do this.... but if it were me i would be putting it in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the US in a place that would give me the best possible tax incentives combined with the absolute lowest cost of re-estate and development.

you would literally be able to get anything you wanted that way.
Click to expand...

Exurbs would probably give them everything they want but with some proximity to international airports. There is open space in places like Shakopee, MN where they already have a warehouse. That's in Scott County but Carver County next to it had median family income of $96,913 in the last census so you can imagine what it is in the top 40%.

If they want to expand their healthcare or medical business it's probably a good location. UnitedHealth Group Inc. HQ isn't too far away which is 5th on the Fortune 500.
 
Madoc said:
The commute isn't being ruined by Amazon. It's being ruined by a City Hall that's waging war on cars and by a regional government which refuses to invest in appropriate infrastructure. This is an issue that pre-dates Amazon's rise in Seattle as a major employer.
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And when the headquarters shifts we get to listen to all the wailing about budget shortfalls as their tax revenue goes with them. Sound Transit, Seattle City Council, King County, and Washington State will all wonder how this could have happened and begin pointing fingers at everything but their policies. The 2nd and 3rd order effects of a monetary shift the size we're looking at will be massive.
 
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Crackinjahcs said:
And when the headquarters shifts we get to listen to all the wailing about budget shortfalls as their tax revenue goes with them. Sound Transit, Seattle City Council, King County, and Washington State will all wonder how this could have happened and begin pointing fingers at everything but their policies. The 2nd and 3rd order effects of a monetary shift the size we're looking at will be massive.
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I for one look forward to the Sawant lady talking about necessary austerity measures :greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy:
 
schmide said:
The DC site is the old White Flint mall Rockville. Almost zero traffic to the airport thanks to the inter county connector.
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Yeah, White Flint could use a good redevelopment. And it's nowhere near downtown DC or NOVA, so WAY less traffic issues. The ICC was built for massive growth, and there's still tons of cheap places to live in Suburban MD (~30 minutes away).

The Purple Line (currently under construction) will also help get people in and out of Bethesda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_(Maryland)

It's a little isolated from airports, but BWI (via ICC) and Regan National (via Metro or GW Parkway) are only 45 minutes away. Dulles is an hour out, but won't be necessary for domestic travel.
 
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