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Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#131

Post by tvanantwerp »

mabbo wrote: post #126
tvanantwerp wrote: post #122

I live in the DC area and this is entirely expected. Bezos owns the Washington Post and a very expensive DC home. Amazon's got data centers in Northern Virginia. We would've all been shocked if it went somewhere else.

But the entire point of the exercise wasn't to make Jeff happier and shorten his commute, it was to find a way to continue to grow without overloading Seattle any more than it already is. HQ2 needs to be somewhere that people want to live, with the room for lots of them. I really was hoping HQ2 would go somewhere more conservative politically. There's plenty of people who would work for Amazon but aren't really excit…

I thought the point of the exercises was to get as many local government concessions as possible before making a decision whose outcome was fairly predictable in advance.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#132

Post by nova22033 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #17
headShrinker wrote: post #2

Just a stones throw away from Washington DC, imagine that. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Amazon is in talks to do billions of dollars worth of work with the DOD and that the location choice of the second headquarters might have a lot to do with that.

Crystal City really has so much going for it: 1. As you point out, right next to Pentagon and federal government. 2. Good transportation: right on the Metro and literally across the street from National Airport. 3. If you're going to have 2 headquarters, having them be on opposite coasts makes sense. 4. And I think another one that is pretty unique to Crystal City is that Amazon and their employees definitely want to…

> Good transportation: right on the Metro

Found the guy who doesn't live in or around DC...

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#133

Post by Aloha »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #121
bearcobra wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Boeing moved it's HQ to Chicago solely to cut down on the travel time to DC.

Boeigs HQ also has a tiny presence too.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#134

Post by jcranmer »

xbkingx wrote: post #103

I 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 fl…

Amazon wanted an in-place tech-ready workforce, an environment that could appeal to yuppie urbanites, and a good transportation hub. Empty office space for quick bootstrapping and the ability to wring concessions were also major sweeteners. Bicoastal geography was also strongly suspected to be a major criterion.

That pretty much cut out any second-tier city from the running. When Montgomery County, DC, and Northern VA were all announced as finalists, it ought to have been pretty clear that Amazon was focused on the DC area. Crystal City itself is basically the description of what you're looking for in that list I gave. Atlanta doesn't really have anything when you take out the airport (which is lousily situated anyways). I suspect Chicago, NYC, and Toronto all have too much focus on other industries (and, besides, Illinois is basically broke, so a sweetheart tax deal needs to be discounted on the basis that Illinois could need to find the cash quickly).

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#135

Post by jacques_chester »

koboll wrote: post #104
eli wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The thing about sales is that at a certain level of client, the clients want to speak to executives, not salespeople.

This is why all sales people are called "executives" and why all executives spend a large fraction of their time on sales.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#136

Post by prolikewh0a »

influx wrote: post #95
plaidfuji wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol @ the notion that Amazon cash will give a city “soul”

Seattle is soulless according to you? I’ve lived in Seattle and worked for Amazon when the headquarters was in a creepy old hospital up on beacon hill, and yes there has been change in Seattle, most of it for the better. Anyone that tells you South Lake Union neighborhood was better pre Amazon is full of it. It was a bunch of warehouses and run down. Do you have experience of Seattle over the past decade, or are you…

You only have the stresses of major homelessness and an extremely large heroin/meth problem, directly due to the endless growth Amazon and other large companies had on this city, with the "top minds" of Seattle having absolutely no clue how to solve it. I've seen multiple people die since I got here, and I've seen people with guns to their heads over drugs outside of my Capitol Hill apartment. Seattle's population willfully ignores everything wrong with the city too.

I live in Seattle. Things like the Showbox reportedly in serious danger of being demolished for luxury condo's are just showing how soulless this city is becoming in the name of 'growth'. The entire city population has been replaced by tech bros and their significant others, tech bro culture, ubers, the food is boring and most restaurants are over-hyped, costs are insane, the people are selfish and rude, there's nothing to do except drink and ride a bike to look at Puget Sound yet again, there's little culture or diversity, and the politicians work entirely in Amazon's favor. I have a decent stable job here, but I'd move if the opportunity was to arise.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#137

Post by selimthegrim »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #136
influx wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is soulless according to you? I’ve lived in Seattle and worked for Amazon when the headquarters was in a creepy old hospital up on beacon hill, and yes there has been change in Seattle, most of it for the better. Anyone that tells you South Lake Union neighborhood was better pre Amazon is full of it. It was a bunch of warehouses and run down. Do you have experience of Seattle over the past decade, or are you…

You only have the stresses of major homelessness and an extremely large heroin/meth problem, directly due to the endless growth Amazon and other large companies had on this city, with the "top minds" of Seattle having absolutely no clue how to solve it. I've seen multiple people die since I got here, and I've seen people with guns to their heads over drugs outside of my Capitol Hill apartment. Seattle's population wi…

During what era was the Showbox culturally significant and to whom?

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#138

Post by erichurkman »

eli wrote: post #91
Yhippa wrote: post #58

This 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.

Or: Amazon is going to heavily recruit former-DoD and government workers, luring them from low pay rates to high paying jobs. Reduce hiring friction: you don't need to convince them to uproot their families to move. They already live in the area, hell, their commute doesn't even change.

Are you more likely to award contracts to AWS if you work at the DoD knowing that in two years you can move over and suddenly quintuple your salary?

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#139

Post by endorphone »

jaggederest wrote: post #6

I find the logic in the article pretty funny. > [T]he best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data, but then [throw all that data away and decide based on personal whim]

There was an old study that made the rounds, which I cannot find at the moment, that corporation headquarter moves overwhelming move towards the CEO's home. They do lots of studies and analysis and claims of doing what's best for the company, but in the end the primary driving force is the convenience of a single person (and everyone who reports to that person weighting and biasing to favor the desired outcome).

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#140

Post by rayiner »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #3

Been looking to buy a house in the Northern Virginia area for about five years now, but the prices have climbed almost linearly, and never slowed down. If Amazon does settle here, I'll probably continue renting until I can GTFO. Microsoft also bought a large plot of land around Loudon county, on which they plan to build a campus. If this area is to become the next Seattle, I have no interest in being here.

Northern VA sucks. Come east to MD its a million times better.
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