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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

#141

Post by BurningFrog »

Deimorz wrote: post #71
theDoug wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, congratulations to everyone who called it ages ago or pointed out that a CEO is going to put HQ2 near an already established home. Good work on 6+ months of press and making cities embarrass themselves for what seemed obvious from the start. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/news/a...

Scott Galloway was pretty confident that it was always intended to be in Washington, partially because of Jeff Bezos already owning a house there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HyiY_m_YxI&t=542 I recommend watching the actual talk, but there are a few sections of it summarized (including some about Amazon HQ2) in this article: https://www.recode.net/2018/9/19/17878766/scott-galloway-pre...

The richest man on Earth can buy any number of houses wherever Amazon builds an office.

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

#143

Post by rayiner »

edraferi wrote: post #61
rhino369 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not great, but could be a lot worse. Crystal city is on two of the main subway lines. And has a Virigina regional rail and Amtrak stop. There is a pretty major bus depot there too. The downside is one of the subway lines only runs every 13 minutes during rush hour. And that cannot be increased without decreasing runs on other lines (because they share a tunnel). Maybe Amazon will convince the governments to run more…

I think Metro hit bottom a couple years ago and is on the way back up. Dedicated funding (finally!) will enable steady improvement. If Amazon comes to town and uses their clout to push for better transportation, that will on accelerate things.

I’m really hoping Amazon can be the force that helps crush WMATA resistance to reform. All hail Bezos.

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

#144

Post by rayiner »

tanilama wrote: post #109
moron4hire wrote: post #12

Noooooooooooo, this is going to completely destroy an already broken transit system.

Maybe increased tax sources can help address some of the transportation issue?

WMATA is swimming in money. The problem is the WMATA union. But maybe Amazon can help with that too.

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

#145

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bearcobra wrote: post #108
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.

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 HQ has nothing much to do with production, however, whereas I assume Amazon's HQ2 to have a lot of R&D in addition to its executive suite.

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

#146

Post by bobthepanda »

itronitron wrote: post #117
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.

This would effectively double the cost to DoD of any awarded cloud service contract to Amazon. In the form of higher cost of living for federal employees.

DC hardly needs any help to give federal employees higher COL, it's already more expensive than Seattle, and is about as expensive as Brooklyn, NYC: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/region_rankings.jsp?ti...

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

#147

Post by prolikewh0a »

selimthegrim wrote: post #137
prolikewh0a wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's been culturally significant since 1939 and still is. There are still packed shows there almost every night. Music is one of the few places Seattle really has culture.

>Founded in 1939,[4] the Showbox has hosted a diverse offering of music over the decades. From the Jazz Age to the Grunge Era, the ballroom has featured shows by Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and the Ramones — as well as local artists such as burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, and grunge bands Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, TAD and Screaming Trees.[5]

>Other acts to perform at The Showbox have included Al Jolson, Mae West, Nat King Cole, Jimmy Durante and Dizzy Gillespie, The Police, XTC, X, Blondie, Gang of Four, Iggy Pop, Devo, Dead Kennedys and Jerry Cantrell.[7][8] More recent performers include The Weeknd, Snoop Dogg, Dave Matthews, Kanye West, Lorde, Robbie Williams, Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Public Enemy, PJ Harvey, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, Daft Punk, Kasabian, Old 97's, Elliott Smith, Peter Murphy, Guided By Voices, Built To Spill, Billy Idol, David Bazan, Bebel Gilberto, Cat Power, Spiritualized, Sleater-Kinney, Minus the Bear, Coldplay, Bright Eyes, The Roots, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Dita Von Teese, Maroon 5, The Shins, The Melvins, My Morning Jacket, LL Cool J, DJ Shadow, Scissor Sisters, TV On The Radio, Ke$ha, Kimbra, Marina and the Diamonds, B-52's, Lady Gaga, Ice Cube, Paul Simon, Macklemore, JoJo, (Kpop group) A.C.E and many more.[9][5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Showbox

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

#148

Post by dawhizkid »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #142

I wonder how much the locals are giving away to make this happen?

Given how wealthy that area already is I'm guessing not as much as other places would have been willing to give us (i.e. IIRC New Jersey and Chicago were offering some of the bigger tax incentives). It would be more because Bezos wants those gov't contracts badly than anything VA was offering.

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

#149

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#150

Post by bobthepanda »

solatic wrote: post #125
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's debatable whether Metro will be able to handle another few tens of thousands of daily commuters going through the downtown core to get to Crystal City. The system's already crammed up at rush hour and nobody has the budget for capital improvements to start to put more tracks through Gallery Place, Metro Center, and L'Enfant Plaza. It would be interesting though, if Amazon was prepared to invest in capital improv…

Judging from Seattle's experience, Amazon is not really prepared to do anything other than garner support from the business community and support a token streetcar. And Metro's capital needs are probably much bigger than Seattle's and are politically more complicated due to three jurisdictions that are frenemies in the best of times.
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