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Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

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Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#51

Post by civilian »

jamesmishra wrote: post #35
bovermyer wrote: post #7

The Twin Cities are looking at courting Amazon for this. IMO, Minneapolis would be a great location for it. We fit the RFP criteria.

Minneapolis would definitely be a great choice. For those that don't know Minneapolis like the parent commenter and I do: - Amazon already has an engineering office in Minneapolis. Check out some of the jobs here. - Amazon has a fulfillment center in Shakopee, MN -- a third ring suburb ~30 miles away from Minneapolis. - This is mostly anecdotal on my part, but it's pretty typical for top computer science students at…

There's a fulfillment center or two 30 miles away from every major city, I'm not sure if that's actually a unique attribute. ;)

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#52

Post by squozzer »

hnaccy wrote: post #5

I hope they pick Atlanta but I doubt techies want to live in the South.

What might kill Atlanta for AMZN - besides certain problems with traffic and sociopolitical climate (we have probably the largest Confederate memorial in the US called Stone Mountain) - is WHERE Atlanta (itself not an especially large political jurisdiction) would probably like AMZN to build - south of I-20 which is not where most people would want to work or live right now.

Obtaining the land would probably be the easy part, issues such as gentrification might prove harder to solve.

The various counties comprising the ATL metro might themselves spark a bidding war to lure AMZN but I have no idea how that would take shape.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#53

Post by scarmig »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #31
jetblackio wrote: post #19

Seems like Denver would be good choice, considering how alike Seattle and Denver are. There's plenty of hiking, biking, camping, etc in the area, and it's central location is convenient for any travel to both the east and west coast. Denver also has an excellent craft brewery scene. Denver / Boulder are already tech hubs in their own right as well.

Shouldn't Amazon be more interested in the economic conditions, rather than hiking and biking and the brewery scene?

Tons of sunbelt and non-coastal cities have spent decades optimizing for cheap land and making themselves "business friendly" over all other concerns.

They still don't have much of a tech scene or high impact industries. And the same calculus that has prevented a mass migration of tech companies to Boise or Waco is the same calculus that will prevent Amazon from moving there either.

My bet is Boulder; the Research Triangle; or Philly.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#54

Post by ecshafer »

prostoalex wrote: post #49
ecshafer wrote: post #14

I think Philadelphia is a good choice. Center City is a 30 minute drive to Philly international airport. Land is relatively cheap, much cheaper than NYC, Boston, or dc. We have an ivy league school in the city, with another less than an hour away, as well as many other schools in the area. We have a large metro population with a good size technical and business industry already. We also have rail and sea shipping ava…

Philadelphia has gross receipts tax https://business.phila.gov/overview-of-business-income-and-r...

Yeah... That we need to get rid of. or that could be a concession. I think Comcast has something similar, their hq is here.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#55

Post by peterwwillis »

AbortedWalrus wrote: post #47
bradleyjg wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PHL has no trans-pacific flights. These are the American cities which you can fly to and from Shanghai nonstop: Chicago, Dallas, LA, NYC (+Newark), San Francisco (+San Jose), Detroit, Seattle, Boston. Atlanta starting next year. In Canada there's Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.

Philadelphia is an hour by train to Newark Airport, which does non-stops to Beijing. It's not as ideal as it being in the local airport, but it's also not that far away.

United flies to both Shanghai ($795) and Beijing ($535) non-stop from Newark.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#56

Post by ecshafer »

AbortedWalrus wrote: post #45
ecshafer wrote: post #14

I think Philadelphia is a good choice. Center City is a 30 minute drive to Philly international airport. Land is relatively cheap, much cheaper than NYC, Boston, or dc. We have an ivy league school in the city, with another less than an hour away, as well as many other schools in the area. We have a large metro population with a good size technical and business industry already. We also have rail and sea shipping ava…

I posted this elsewhere but I'll repost here: 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…

I was thinking center City. But you're right, navy yard would be a good fit.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#57

Post by madcaptenor »

kingbirdy wrote: post #32
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if Amazon attracts enough talent to turn Philly into a tech hub then PA will have all the same "one city runs the show and the rest of the state resents them" dynamic that NY and IL do. It's probably still a win for Philly though.

Philly is at least half way there already - it's just Philly and Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia is bigger.

And people in Philly basically don't think about Pittsburgh. Sure, it exists, but it may as well be in another state.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#58

Post by drewying »

joshdance wrote: post #28

SLC might be too 'small' but it growing, has a super strong university system and tons of software engineers.

While Salt Lake technically meets the requirements, they do so just barely. The metro area barely cracks a million people, and the airport maybe has 1 or 2 international flights a day. Plus Amazon and the Utah state government still have a lot animosity towards each other from the whole online tax thing.

Plus it's really tough to attract out of state talent in Utah.

I think Salt Lake would be a very hard sell compared to what Amazon could easily get with Denver.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#59

Post by humbleMouse »

0x4f3759df wrote: post #37
jamesmishra wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minneapolis would definitely be a great choice. For those that don't know Minneapolis like the parent commenter and I do: - Amazon already has an engineering office in Minneapolis. Check out some of the jobs here. - Amazon has a fulfillment center in Shakopee, MN -- a third ring suburb ~30 miles away from Minneapolis. - This is mostly anecdotal on my part, but it's pretty typical for top computer science students at…

Minneapolis is such a long shot in my opinion, because very ambitious people tend to move to the coasts.

That's a common theme parroted by many, and a lot of ambitious people do indeed move to the coast. However, I think you are underestimating the amount of ambitious people in minneapolis and the surrounding area. We have tons of fortune 500 companies here and lots of world class smart ambitious people.

Not everyone is a 20 something who has no family obligations and is willing to go work anywhere in the country. Furthermore, in minneapolis we have very high salaries relative to cost of living. If you make 120k here you're basically rich and can save an enormous amount per month. This kind of salary to cost of living ratio allows an ambitious person to save tons of money each month and invest it how they please.

Anyhow, I don't think minneapolis is a long shot. We have a very good economy and infrastructure and lots of people doing smart/ambitious things.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#60

Post by rainbowmverse »

chis wrote: post #39

Most of the internal talk I've seen favors Vancouver. It's geographically close (with excellent transportation), is big but still has room to grow. Canada in general is a good choice because they have more lax limmigration policies.

What's the value in having two headquarters a few hours apart?
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