HOORAY, the great evil one has avoided Austin, TX, now we austinites can live without the fear of Amazonites causing all our taxes to go through the roofs - - - and housing availability to go to nothing . . . .
Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
101–110 of 412 posts
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lol @ the notion that Amazon cash will give a city “soul”
I think the poster above meant to be a little facetious. I tend to read “millennial ready” as building out a supply of tiny, $2000/mo studios with loads of flashy amenities and terrible quality construction.
Don't forget the cookie cutter restaurants, properly styled and stippled to create an illusion of not just being yet another bland chain.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#103I still maintain that not picking Chicago would be a major mistake. I only think this because I want to see them take over most of the Sears Tower and convert it into a delivery drone launch site. A) How bonkers-cool would that look? B) Ideal test site for large scale drone delivery. Less drone power drain, since they would essentially be performing a controlled descent instead of a liftoff and descent. Asymmetric flight paths, like with the drone return around the 2nd-3rd floor, would allow more rapid launches. Grid street layout that makes actual sense, so easier on the AI/ML. Center of the country (ish), so longer distance delivery with solar powered drones might be viable.
Okay, I'll admit it. I just REALLY want to see streams of flying killbots emanating from my home town. The Robot Uprising is coming, people, and I'm hoping early allegiance leads to a nicer brain vat in their biocomputer.
Seriously, though, I would have thought Atlanta, Chicago, and Boston, in that order, would be better. Bi-coastal or geographic center make logistical sense. ATL and BOS have excellent tech resources, but maybe a bit too much competition for talent in BOS. ATL gives a presence in "The South", so could serve as a political/cultural foothold without any major compromises. ATL proved it can easily support a tech boom during the y2k bubble. BOS serves as a great gateway to Europe. CHI is really hungering for more tech influence and would probably bend over backwards to be accommodating. Plus, the most likely site in CHI is actually a great location for anyone that likes an urban setting, not just millennials. Amazon is one of the few tech companies that I think CHI could embrace because it has a strong influence on financial markets and doesn't feel as 'magical' as many tech companies (where it's hard for everyday people to understand what they do). And Chicagoans can be fiercely loyal, even to companies. Case in point - The Sears Tower. The only time you hear "Willis Tower" is on the news. And there are a couple dozen other cases of locals refusing to rebrand stuff simply because ownership or naming rights changed.
Being by DC isn't a BAD location, but it seems like it would be better to have a strong satellite location that can be expanded as needed. I would assume the atmosphere there is more restricted for some of their more ambitious projects involving lots of sensors and physical presence. Every location will have red tape, but it seems like there DC would be ordering it in bulk.
I dunno, just rambling.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#104This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.
People keep saying this and I really don't follow. Why does the DoD care where the headquarters of the parent company of their contractor is located? Are they gonna pop in and ask questions about the Amazon retail site? Sure AWS needs a sales office in the region. And a datacenter. And a lobbying shop too. Pretty sure they got all that covered already.
The thing about sales is that at a certain level of client, the clients want to speak to executives, not salespeople.
If you're going to place executives in the area, then their underlings need to be there too, and so on. Putting your HQ where your executives need to be makes sense.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#105This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.
Cloud services? This is a 2nd headquarters and Amazon is more than cloud services. They could handle the point you are making with simply a large local office. Not the entire company which is involved in a host of things that would make other areas more attractive.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#106Amazing the amount of people here who takes this as some kind of truth instead of just a story that could have even been leaked for another purpose (perhaps even to gain more leverage with the area that they actually want to go to).
This is also the epitome of infotainment something that in the end won't even matter unless it actually happens other than to discuss the 'inside baseball' of the entire event.
How sure is anyone of this? Sure enough to go and snap up real estate (say residential) knowing that if it is correct that real estate will inflate in value well over whatever it is right now (already inflated).
Also I still am not seeing the advantage to Amazon (as long as everyone is speculating) of going into such a dense and expensive area to begin with. Jeff is all about efficiency and paying as little as possible. What possible advantage does he have but located in such an expensive area that is sure to get even more expensive.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#107This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.
People keep saying this and I really don't follow. Why does the DoD care where the headquarters of the parent company of their contractor is located? Are they gonna pop in and ask questions about the Amazon retail site? Sure AWS needs a sales office in the region. And a datacenter. And a lobbying shop too. Pretty sure they got all that covered already.
A lot of it is relationships. A lot of it is the kind of workforce you'll get (people already experience with DoD stuff and have the right clearances but don't want to move out of the DC/MD/VA area), and such things.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#108This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.
People keep saying this and I really don't follow. Why does the DoD care where the headquarters of the parent company of their contractor is located? Are they gonna pop in and ask questions about the Amazon retail site? Sure AWS needs a sales office in the region. And a datacenter. And a lobbying shop too. Pretty sure they got all that covered already.
I don't follow this logic either. Boeing has their HQ in Chicago, Raytheon in Massachusetts, UTC in Connecticut. The key thing these companies seem to do is spread their offices into relatively small states so when votes happen Senators have to go against large employees in their districts.
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#109Noooooooooooo, this is going to completely destroy an already broken transit system.
Maybe increased tax sources can help address some of the transportation issue?
Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia
#110This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.
People keep saying this and I really don't follow. Why does the DoD care where the headquarters of the parent company of their contractor is located? Are they gonna pop in and ask questions about the Amazon retail site? Sure AWS needs a sales office in the region. And a datacenter. And a lobbying shop too. Pretty sure they got all that covered already.
Executive distance, would be my guess.