Crossroads to the west… from what? There is a whole bunch of nothing (with apologies to Colorado) east of SLC.
And Amazon is already in the west. If anything, they need a crossroads to the east.
The thing about SLC is that while the city itself is liberal, it’s only liberal compared to the rest of the state. The city itself isn’t even 200,000, and the metropolitan area is barely over a million, and is very much LDS and deeply Republican. Every member of Congress and the Governor are R’s. The state government is overwelmingly R. It is very hostile to the LBGT community among other things. I don’t know personally anyone who longs to live in SLC (although I know there are some.)
The fact that so few people drink makes it such that it is all but impossible to run a top end restaurant since much of their profits come from alcohol sales. It just seems like a clash with corporate values and the way the company was built.
The airport would also have to be expanded substantially with 50,000 new people, about half of whom travel regularly. I used to go to SLC about once a month and that airport is crowded. Every gate (and there aren’t that many) is in use all hours of the day.
Being a tech person from Atlanta and it is listed as one of the top contenders, this is an interesting subject.
One of my thoughts was why transportation is so important.
I know there is lots of things beyond simply getting to an from work, but I would think that Amazon would have a pretty good work from home policy. And we have several areas that have gigabit fiber and of course one of the busiest international airports.
UPS moved its corporate HQ here 25 yrs ago because of cost of living and all the upsides of ATL. And I do believe that the proximity to Georgia Tech and other major colleges and universities was a big factor in the decision to move from CT to GA.
It will be interesting to see what their ultimate decision is.
I’m from Connecticut and I remember when UPS made that move. I saw an article after they moved in which one of the execs said the one thing they regretted is that the public schools in Connecticut were better.
Which other major colleges and universities are close to Atlanta? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Emory (I suppose UGA sort of qualifies if you consider a one-hour drive close). The city certainly has lots of selling points but higher education is not really one of them. Orlando - one third the size - has more students enrolled at UCF alone than GT, GSU and Emory combined.
SLC could actually make some sense in some regards. It has a major airport and although it’s in a socially conservative state, it’s also probably pretty business friendly and SLC has a rep of being progressive IIRC. It’s young and techie.
I still think it’ll lose to bigger markets but if Bezos really wants to buck the trend and go with a smaller city for a major HQ then SLC would be competitive in a few ways. Denver is probably a lot like SLC.
Atlanta is a regional draw in a way Orlando isn’t. It’s the closest big city to universities like Clemson, UGA, South Carolina, and Auburn.
Isn’t UCF basically a gigantic community college masquerading as a 4 year university? I’ve considered it a place for all the C students that couldn’t get into FSU or UF to have a place to get a 4 year diploma. I wouldn’t think that UCF would have much appeal to Amazon.
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That is probably the dumbest idea I have heard this week. Nothing signals success like a shell of a city destroyed by decades of incompetent Democratic governance and rampant corruption. Is Chicago supposed to be the backup?
I think those are wish list items; the real brass tacks of the matter ultimately go back to the question of why they’re leaving Seattle in the first place. Seattle has lots of tech. Seattle has an educated population - more educated than most of the rest of the United States. Don’t fall for that bullshit.
Think about what Bezos-a-zon is doing. He’s got his hands on a company that represents the future of consumer behavior in this country. It’s where Sears Roebuck and Woolworth’s were in 1898. It’s not just some gimmicky tech company that allows you to download an app; it’s going to be a part of your everyday life and not just in terms of how you search for gifts or communicate with people; it’s going to be your AI consultant that studies you on one hand, and it’s going to give you the goods that you want and ships them to you on the other. Not just toys, but the food that you put in your body. And oh by the way, Bezos owns his own little mouthpiece called Wa-Po.
This is why I have a hard time believing he’s just going to move HQ to some little “We think we can be the next Bay Area” tech town. He wants attention. He wants people and consumers. Where does the bulk of the population live? East of the Mississippi (Granted, Texas isn’t East but it’s close enough and it’s the 2nd most populous state with several of the fastest growing metro areas). What are the largest media markets? DFW, Houston, NYC, DC, Boston, Atlanta. Everything Seattle’s not, pretty much. Which cities have more financial prowess, more VC and investors? Which cities are more likely going to fund Amazon’s next big move and give it the attention it wants? Salt Lake City? Denver? Or DC, Boston, Atlanta, New York, DFW, or SF?
Atlanta is definitely in the running, IMO. I’d be shocked if Denver were more competitive than Atlanta. No slight to Denver. I know a lot of people who’ve moved there and I know it has a good tech scene. But Atlanta has more of what a company like Amazon wants. Denver’s another Seattle: 1000+ miles without seeing another metropolis. Isn’t Amazon trying to leave that by leaving Seattle behind? Denver will be fine with or without Amazon. It’s got its own organic growth.
Well, for the Minneapolis-St.Paul area, we conveniently have this 135 acre site smack in the middle of the cities (on Mississippi in St.Paul, across river from Minneapolis) that used to be a Ford plant that they’re trying to redevelop.
Lots of educated people, major company HQ’s (Target, General Mills, 3M, US Bank, Ameriprise, Ecolab, United Health Group, Best Buy, etc), transportation hub, tech center…
I think if our state gets it’s shit together, we could put in a good bid.
Who says they’re leaving Seattle? Everything I’ve read describes this as a new, co-equal headquarters with Seattle. I haven’t been to Seattle since they finished their campus, but I was there when it was under construction and they must have spent a bundle. Hard to believe they’d abandon that after just a few years.
I was trying to think of a location around Boston that would be good, and I think Sullivan Square would work. Buy and remodel the Schrafft’s building, and there’s room for new construction behind it. It’s right on the Orange Line subway. And if they want a convenient connection to the airport they could run their own water taxi there and back.
You are going to need a lot more space for a company like Amazon. The problem with Boston and San Francisco is that they are space constricted because all of the water. That makes it really hard for outsiders to move in. People obviously do it in the tech industry because salaries tend to be high but a company like Amazon needs a full range of people and a lot of jobs won’t pay enough to support subsistence wages.
I look at all my friends in the Dallas area that have literal mansions for the money I make in the Boston area and I get envious. I can’t move because of my kids and I think the suburban educational systems are great here but I would do massively materially better if I moved near my family in the Dallas area. I routinely get offers for 10’s of thousands of dollars more if I am willing to move to Houston, Dallas or Austin but I can’t take it because of my kids. The difference in things that I could afford if I took it is extreme. I live well outside of Boston and rarely visit it because I don’t like it that much but I like my general area just fine. It is just that the cost/benefit analysis doesn’t work out that well for me.
The same is true for the Washington D.C. area. It is a perfectly fine city that I love to visit but I have no idea why Amazon would want to plop a logistics and IT company there.
Detroit is putting a bid together, led by Gilbert. It’s not a leading candidate, but it has some pretty good characteristics, one of the major ones is Windsor. A distributed campus, with some bits across the border,would gain some goodwill(and quid pro quo) with Canada as well, which is very nice for a global company. But it comes back to the issue of a distributed campus with a poor transportation infrastructure, doesn’t come off all that great.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I can’t see Amazon going into Texas in the current political climate. Do they really want to be faced with a possible boycott every time the governor, lieutenant governor, or Texas Legislature throws red meat out to conservatives to shore up their right flank? And, of course, this happens a lot in Texas, most recently with a failed bathroom bill, but also with strict abortion restrictions leading to the famous Wendy Davis filibuster. How many times did Texas force a vote on same sex marriage? Rick Perry even made a ceremonial signing of an constitutional same sex marriage amendment, even though a constitutional amendment doesn’t need a governor’s signature.
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Amazon’s space in Seattle is described as a campus, but it’s not the sprawling, low-rise, lots-of-parking type of campus that people usually think of for high-tech companies. It still takes up several blocks, but it’s in the city. I read somewhere that they deliberately did not include enough cafeteria space so that employees would go out to neighborhood restaurants and food trucks for lunch. The definitely seem to believe in the benefits of being in an active, urban location.
I don’t know how many square feet they need for the new campus, but I don’t think Sullivan Sq. is completely out of line. The mouth of the Mystic River is seeing a lot development; Assembly Row is almost done, and the casino is under construction on the other side of the water.
Check this site, between the railroad tracks and the playground. It’s got to be several acres, Sullivan Square is a transfer point for buses and the Orange Line subway, and if they put in a commuter rail station it opens up the Haverhill, Newburyport, and Rockport lines to bring commuters right to their doorstep. If there’s a problem, it might not be urban and connected enough for Amazon’s taste.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. What Amazon wants, most of all, is tax breaks and other incentives. Whichever reasonably suitable city ponies up the most giveaways is where Amazon will end up.
I haven’t heard of a boycott of a Texas based business. The last boycotts I’ve heard about were of Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby. I don’t think they accomplished anything either.
If I were Amazon, I’d want business friendly and lower labor costs. I’m thinking Tennessee or NC. Maybe even near Atlanta.