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Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

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Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#3

Post by bko »

> Amazon's is the most ambitious gambit of them all. When its spheres and three surrounding towers are completed, the company will have 10 million square feet of office space in Seattle, more than 15 percent of the city's inventory, on a campus that occupies more than 10 square blocks.

15% of a city's commercial inventory seems like a lot. Any comparable levels to companies in other cities? Is this typical for one company to own/lease such a large percentage of commercial real-estate or is the statistic misleading?

[edit] removed duplicate quote

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#4

Post by ldom22 »

bko wrote: post #3

> Amazon's is the most ambitious gambit of them all. When its spheres and three surrounding towers are completed, the company will have 10 million square feet of office space in Seattle, more than 15 percent of the city's inventory, on a campus that occupies more than 10 square blocks. 15% of a city's commercial inventory seems like a lot. Any comparable levels to companies in other cities? Is this typical for one co…

why paste the quote twice? why paste the quote twice?

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#5

Post by sbierwagen » 

  In a story on Arthur Sulzberger, Mark Bowden wrote in 
  Vanity Fair, "Whether owing to hubris or sheer 
  distraction, the erection of a new headquarters often 
  seems to spell trouble for corporations."
http://www.businessinsider.com/poorly-timed-headquarters-200...

  Anecdotal experience tends to lead many people in the 
  technology industry to suggest that growth (or newly 
  “sexy”) companies rapidly head into difficulties at 
  about the same time as they move from the seedy garages 
  and crumbling buildings they started in to shiny new 
  office buildings.
http://www.ipglossary.com/glossary/new-headquartersoffice-sy...

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#6

Post by Johnny555 »

sbierwagen wrote: post #5

In a story on Arthur Sulzberger, Mark Bowden wrote in Vanity Fair, "Whether owing to hubris or sheer distraction, the erection of a new headquarters often seems to spell trouble for corporations." http://www.businessinsider.com/poorly-timed-headquarters-200... Anecdotal experience tends to lead many people in the technology industry to suggest that growth (or newly “sexy”) companies rapidly head into difficulties at…

For example, Zynga's office building is worth more than the entire company:

https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-...

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#7

Post by canalbiker »

bko wrote: post #3

> Amazon's is the most ambitious gambit of them all. When its spheres and three surrounding towers are completed, the company will have 10 million square feet of office space in Seattle, more than 15 percent of the city's inventory, on a campus that occupies more than 10 square blocks. 15% of a city's commercial inventory seems like a lot. Any comparable levels to companies in other cities? Is this typical for one co…

Eh, you've got to keep in mind that Seattle is pretty tiny itself, and is surrounded by a lot of suburbs that are also industrial/tech centers (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Etc).

Re: Amazon Has Swallowed Downtown Seattle

#9

Post by techsupporter »

yunong wrote: post #2

"one of the best recruiting tools Amazon has is if people come interview on a nice day, and people are sitting outside having lunch from a food truck." Have they been to Seattle during the months of November to June?

I have (I live in Seattle, but don't work for Amazon) and the weather is pretty great roughly nine months out of the year. Late November to February are dreary but spring, summer, and most of fall make up for it. Sorry for leaking the secret, fellow Seattleites.
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