Have they acquired all the surrounding lands yet? If not, announcing this expansion plan might push up the price.
Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#22I love this idea, but I couldn't help but think of Foxconn City and that one Simpsons episode where Homer moves into a great new job with a supporting city run by an evil genius. http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2010/11/thomas-lee-foxconn/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Only_Move_Twice
If he turns into Hank Scorpio, sign me up! In all seriousness, though, I think this could turn out like the SLU neighborhood here in Seattle. Paul Allen bought all the land and turned it into a major biotech hub, and now Amazon, tech stars, and others are taking it over.
Unless things have dramatically changed in the last 6 months since I left Seattle, SLU is still kind of a failure.
The big vanity streetcar Paul Allen wanted got built, and is still as useless as ever. He wanted "mass transit" in his neighborhood, but it's neither frequent enough, nor fast enough, to really make a difference. SLU remains as isolated from the rest of Seattle as ever, except now a lot of people are forced to make the commute (try asking a east side resident how they like their commute).
Some condos got built, but the area is still largely undeveloped, and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of residential development going on. Commercial tenants are moving in, but the residents aren't following.
Ditto, residential-support businesses (restaurants, coffee shops, corner stores, etc) simply haven't arrived at all. The neighborhood still shuts down after work, barring a select number of expensive bistros. I've heard through the grapevine that Vulcan is being extremely selective about their retail tenants - and anything that's not archetypically urban-chic (and expensive) need not apply.
It's like Belltown, except less organic, more artificially high-end, without any trace of nightlife, and way more boring. This is fine if Paul Allen imagined SLU as an office-park neighborhood, but that's not Vulcan's vision. Overall, I'd consider SLU to be the most sterile and soulless neighborhood on that side of the lake.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#23If you build it, they will come? I hope so. This seems like a very risky venture.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#24As a practicing urban designer, this strikes me as a great piece of investing if done right. These plans will take years or even decades to come to fruition (a big horizon for most tech people), but I am sure he will end up a real estate tycoon at the end of it. Commit a significantly run down area to a vision, and there is huge money to be made, as well as (potential) benefits for the general public....
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#25If you build it, they will come? I hope so. This seems like a very risky venture.
"Build a campus, or build a city".
They had to build something, might as well try to become the heart of downtown Las Vegas instead of investing in the purgatory of suburban sprawl.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems to me that he's investing in Zappos. That investment just happens to come in the form of buying real estate in Las Vegas. I wonder what the monetary difference is between building up Vegas and building their own campus. If you accept the fact that you need a decent campus to attract top talent then your investment only needs to make up the difference between the cost of building your own. Throw in the fact that…
As the article says, Hsieh is after the synergistic effects that you get with melting pots; things that manifest themselves in a chaotic, cross breeding, art meets science meets business meets community world that you rarely find on a corporate campus.
Yup. People who think he's investing in this as real estate are totally missing the big picture.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#27I wonder how many startups will actually get work done that close to the Strip? Seems like a major source of distractions.
Downtown is not the Strip, it's a mile or so north from the northernmost part of the Strip. Downtown has a more funky, 70's era-somewhat gritty vibe to it. More Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas than The Hangover, if you will. A good vibe, though, with plenty of distractions of its own I guess.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#28I wonder how many startups will actually get work done that close to the Strip? Seems like a major source of distractions.
Having lived in Vegas for the summer it is not as distracting as it seems. You really will only go to the strip when friends come into town or for the show/poker tournament etc. Residential Vegas/Summerlin is actually a really beautiful area.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#29How far is too far for building a culture of "fun with a little bit of weirdness?" I find Zappos dedication to fun weirdness to be a little much to begin with. But now buying land surrounding your call-center with plans to build an entire city for employees to live/work/play in? And "dorms" to live in? That's a lot. I'm all for free jet flights ( http://www.launch.is/blog/leak-zappos-ceo-gives-employees-fr... ) but t…
I like to separate my work and life (especially when working for someone else) and I don't think I would like to live in a company owned building.
Re: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup
#30It's not really clear that this is actually a new startup, but regardless of that, investing in Las Vegas real estate strikes me as an extremely bold move.
Extremely bold, you have to love not only Tony's vision for what he wants to see in a city but also that he has the fortitude to act on it
Yes, it reminds me of Sim City 2000's arcologies, which, as I'm sure anyone who loved that game as much as I did would agree, is the sort of thing dreams are made of (I'll pass on the rocket boosters though). It's really unfortunate for me that this iteration is in Vegas.