Amazon announces 20 finalists for HQ2
- Thread starter dgordo
- Start date
Only Los Angeles in Pacific time zone and Denver in Mountain. While Toronto is probably a tremendous fit, I can't imagine that would look good politically by the MAGA folks - although they already hate Bezos.
Kind of surprised by Indianapolis and Columbus, but I suppose if you start with 20, there's going to be some clearly lesser choices.
Kind of surprised by Indianapolis and Columbus, but I suppose if you start with 20, there's going to be some clearly lesser choices.
Isn't that pretty much every city that is interested?
There was another 218 cities who didn't make the cut, although I'm not sure how many of them thought themselves as actual contenders. Kansas City for instance made a bid and I would have thought they'd be comparable to several of these.
My money is on Denver. It’s a green city. Young, educated demographics, on two interstate highways, big airport, railroads, and its growing.
Yeah, although I think the initial request said it needed to be a metro of 1 million plus people. So, that takes out all but 60-70 applicants by itself.
Don’t underestimate Columbus, it’s a huge hub for phrma manufacturing and somewhat centrally located.
Yeah, it really comes down to which of Amazon's criteria are the most heavily weighted. I wouldn't think Columbus checks the big airport and public transit boxes very well. However, they may have heavy incentives and the considerations you pointed out.
Cost of living, central locations, good transport (roads/airports) and located close to schools with academically strong technology programs (Purdue, IU infomatics school, Rose Hulman when talking Indy) probably got them in to the round of 20.
Those 2 cities probably fall down on the lifestyle and transit categories.
'Alright, which one of you 20 cities wants to come up with a better offer now'
I’m guessing they’d build closer to Castle Rock. The Springs is creeping north.
I happen to know a person who transferred there. is it an up and coming hi tech haven?
Newark to help Corey Booker and give him something to talk about.
That's my conspiracy theory. I think D.C. makes sense because of him owning the Post and it's really on the upswing.
But my real prediction is Montgomery County, MD. Because, why in the hell would it be on the list of not considered very highly, while still being close enough to D.C. without saying you put it in D.C.
That's my conspiracy theory. I think D.C. makes sense because of him owning the Post and it's really on the upswing.
But my real prediction is Montgomery County, MD. Because, why in the hell would it be on the list of not considered very highly, while still being close enough to D.C. without saying you put it in D.C.
I think Des Moines would be a great spot for a distribution center.
Lots of land on edges of town and two large interstates meeting.
Seems like t would be ideal.
Lots of land on edges of town and two large interstates meeting.
Seems like t would be ideal.
Des Moines makes sense to me too. Land will be cheaper than in Denver. Certainly more room to grow. I have to wonder about the demographics, but people will relocate for a job like that. The airport might become an issue, unless they build their own.
Minneapolis put in the typical “we’ll welcome you, but you’re not one of us, so....here’s $5 worth of promised incentives and we will provide food and rental chairs for your ribbon cutting” bid.
Yeah - except that PG County Maryland was pushing hard to be in the running. Instead, Montgomery County MD is on the list.
For those who don't know, PG County is poorish and majority black, while Montgomery is white and one of the richest counties in MD.
Hmmmm.
Minnesotans are very friendly. They'll will give you directions anywhere except their own house.
I was a little surprised Minneapolis didn't make the cut. Now I know. To be fair, Minneapolis/St Paul already has a tight labor market and good economy. Getting Amazon would have been great though.
Columbus might actually be a great choice. Looking at the list, there are many there that will demand very high wages even for the customer service types should they put those jobs there, not to mention real estate costs. Something in the Eastern Time Zone with good access to well-educated people, in/around a large city like Columbus could be a great option.
I doubt it's anywhere other than Eastern Time Zone, and would eliminate NYC/NJ, DC/NoVA/MD from the running based on the above criteria.
All my opinion, conjecture of course.
Austin seems well positioned, based on Amazon's claimed requirements. If I had to guess, I'd put it high on the list.
I know one of the nimrods working on the MN option. It never had a chance.
the mayor and city council and all the higher up seem to think they have a good shot at it
I didn’t think Des Moines had a shot at headquarters I was thinking more about distribution center.
the distribution centers here: they build these big, awesome warehouses when there are some empty ones across town. then they supposedly treat the workers like slave labor. there are a rumors here.
I will predict that whichever city wins, they will NEVER recover what they give up as incentives. Kind of like how Olympic cities get royally screwed over in the long run.
That's not a rumor. I knew someone whose kid worked at a distribution center in Delaware. The laborers don't last long. I would expect those to become automated at some point in time anyway.
The Twin Cities would have been dumb to go after this. Aside from Walmart, who are two of Amazon's biggest traditional competitors? Target and Best Buy who are both headquartered in the Twin Cities.
Then consider that Amazon has bought Whole Foods to get into the grocery business. That could be direct competition with SuperValu, which is headquartered in the Twin Cities, if they expand their grocery service beyond Whole Foods' traditional high-end market.
And Amazon has announced they're going to get into the logistics business, directly competing with the country's largest 3PL firm in CH Robinson, also headquartered in the Twin Cities.
That's four local public companies in the Fortune 250 that are direct competitors of Amazon and would likely have been significantly hurt by losing large amounts of employees. While that might have been good for the employees getting new jobs, it likely would have been disproportionately worse for the employees staying at those companies. And the people wanted the state to offer Amazon free money to do that?
Wouldn't it be better for the state to offer the incentives to the existing companies to help them out since they don't really compete with each other that much? Yes Best Buy and Target compete some and Target and SuperValu compete too, but not as much as all of them directly compete with Amazon which will soon likely cover the entire business portfolio of these companies.
Soooo, Bezos, who is richest man of all time=Idiot. Trump, who was handed everything on a silver platter and is a fat racist twitter monster=Genius. Got it.
