I would bet on Canada, so either Toronto or Montreal. The whole continuity reason for the second HQ needs to address possible political and regulatory disruptions as well. They need the option to flip jurisdiction as a leverage.
Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
111–118 of 118 posts
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#112He needs to add Detroit to his list. Amazon already has two large warehouses and a small developer office there. The only negative on the list is a less than overwhelming public transport system. But they've got lots of cheap land, and both an international airport and an international border as well as three world class universities within an hours drive. Not to mention a metro area with a population of 4.5 million.
Compared to more outdoor friendly cities out west, Detroit is a downright depressing place to live. Especially for young people.
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which universities are within an hours drive? Michigan, obviously.
People in the Metro Detroit area seem to conflate University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State as being equals / near equals.
The big state colleges are regarded as equals in the state, only in athletic terms. Everyone knows Michigan is the lone standout academically.
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#114SLC might be too 'small' but it growing, has a super strong university system and tons of software engineers.
SLC has terrible pollution that is directly correlated with population within the valley. Adding 50K more to the mix in a short amount of time is not a helpful addition
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#115South of Chicago is suuuuper cheap and has lots of available space.
City proper - outside of the lakefront - is not prohibitively expensive either. But I'm just weirded out by how the article discounts Chicago based on assumptions about, what, tax policy? Where is this coming from? The Rahm is lobbying hard, and he's very pro-bigcorp, as McDonald's new 500,000 sqft world headquarters in West Loop can attest to. Regardless of where Amazon lands (and I don't really have a horse in that…
Everyone is leaving IL, why would Amazon be the lone exception?
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#116I find it interesting how many of these comments are sales pitches for their chosen cities. I don't have any preferences, since I have no desire to work for Amazon nor do I think my current city of SF is a good choice for reasons laid out in the article. What I'm most interested in, however, is how you get around some of these problems. The article points out a number of issues: Can even Amazon afford to pay 50,000 p…
How much are you assuming these 50,000 are going to be paid? Even at a very generous $200k/year all-in (cash+cost of benefits) average (they aren't all going to be highly paid engineers or executives) that's "only" $10bn/year. It's steep, but would amount to only about 6% of their annual revenue. Some of that 50,000 is likely to be transfers and lower wage employees.
It's not so much what they get paid as how much they could save by going elsewhere. If you imagine a generous 200k/year average in SF or NYC, you can also imagine that it wouldn't be 200K in a place like, say, Des Moines, IA or Detroit, MI -- it might be closer to a generous 100K average, saving them $5bn/year -- or fifty percent cheaper. Just made up numbers, but it illustrates the point. If salary were the only criteria and Bezos went to the board and said, "Which would you rather pay, $10bn/year or $5bn/year for salary?" it's pretty obvious which one the board would pick.
Even a janitor or desk assistant is paid more in SF and NYC than they are in Charleston, SC, so the principle applies even for low wage workers.
(Now obviously, the criteria is more than just salary, so the above is an oversimplification.)
That overlooks another aspect: what happens to a city when 50,000 new people show up likely making more than the average of that city? Do we get inflation? Do we have a housing crisis where all the nice houses are bought up and even the mediocre neighborhood property values skyrocket? Does gentrification become a problem? If you think "it's just 50,000 people and it's just one company," you'd be right -- but don't you think whatever city Amazon chooses is going to have a tech boom? There will be more tech jobs generated, leading to higher salaries and more expensive houses and... and... and...
I think the peripheral side effects of such a move are much more interesting than the move itself. The salary thing, sure, you're right. It's only 6% of their income. But what happens if the move causes unimaginable traffic congestion or significantly increases the homeless population or puts a strain on local preschools. Fifty thousand people? Let's say a third of them have 1 kid -- that's ~17,000 to add to the local school systems! We need more teachers! We need more buses! We need more textbooks! Instant crisis!
(I exaggerate, but still...)
That's the kind of stuff I find to be fascinating.
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
City proper - outside of the lakefront - is not prohibitively expensive either. But I'm just weirded out by how the article discounts Chicago based on assumptions about, what, tax policy? Where is this coming from? The Rahm is lobbying hard, and he's very pro-bigcorp, as McDonald's new 500,000 sqft world headquarters in West Loop can attest to. Regardless of where Amazon lands (and I don't really have a horse in that…
Everyone is leaving IL, why would Amazon be the lone exception?
LOL the IL homer who down voted.. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/cook-county-has-largest-popul...
Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters
#118I would bet on Canada, so either Toronto or Montreal. The whole continuity reason for the second HQ needs to address possible political and regulatory disruptions as well. They need the option to flip jurisdiction as a leverage.
If you are thinking long term, consider a large scale war, if China and the US get into a large scale conflict, Toronto might be spared.