Team Toronto. We seem to hit most of the criteria and the GTA + Waterloo is probably the best tech talent producing area outside of the Bay Area schools.
Sounds like Muncie is the front runner *IF* they don't land Google. Tight on scholarships TIF districts this year.
Yeah I think a lot of people are underestimating how much 8M sqft is. It's about 3 Empire State Buildings. If they're truly committed to that much square footage from the start, there are not a ton of cities that can provide it in a "downtown setting" that the proposal requests.
But aren't they the ones that are pretty much responsible for revitalizing Downtown in the first place?
Atlanta has a spot downtown where it would fit that they've been trying to redevelop for a while. It's close to public transportation, 15 minutes from Hartsfield-Jackson and a few miles from the GT campus. I'd imagine that will be a big part of the pitch
I wish you could easily flip real estate, when the city name leaks houses will go up double digit percentages very quickly
Chicago is the pretty obvious choice here, especially with the recent North Side proposal. Of course Amazon will fuck it up and it in a red state like Atlanta or Raleigh
Amazon developing the Gulch would be absolutely huge for Atlanta, and Downtown Atlanta in particular. It would be as big as the Olympics, and I don't think that's being hyperbolic.
Seattle and surrounding areas were HQ to a lot of tech companies prior to Amazon. They're now the HQ to a fucking nutso company that is expanding at an insane rate. To put things into perspective: "The company has outstripped Seattle’s geographical and recruiting capacity. Amazon already owns or leases over 8 million square feet with an existing plan to expand to 12 million square feet over the next few years. It’s already the single-biggest downtown tenant, with 90% of prime real estate there, and among the largest footprints of any non-manufacturing business across the region. The second-biggest Seattle property occupier is Safeco, with 411,000 square feet. (Microsoft has more office space in its suburban campus and outposts, but they started building long before the current boom at lower cost and low density.)"
Why not just put it in Macon? Plenty of land and will give those employees an idea of what Georgia is really about
No, but there's tons of office space to grow into downtown and plenty of cheap land to even expand downtown Westward around Mercedes Benz. The Georgia Dome's footprint is about to be available too.
I don't know enough about property development to say with any certainty. It's pretty large and I'd imagine they could also take over some of the space currently used for parking decks that surround the gulch in addition to whatever opens up as a result of the old dome coming down
This is where I don't understand how Boston or Chicago or a city already built out would have room to build a huge campus like that. I know it can always be done but sounds like they plan to build from the ground up so buying skyscrapers and knocking them down seems inefficient.
I'd think public transit would be a limitation for ATL, but maybe not compared to some of the other cities they're considering.
The two main things that are at odds with each other are the amount of "downtown" space they want and the request for transit. IMO, they're going to have to sacrifice at least one of those no matter where they choose. They're not going to get every single thing on that list, so there's going to be a give and take. That's why practically every city in America can convince itself it fits the description.
Austin traffic is a complete shitshow already. I just can't imagine they would look at our current and potential infrastructure and not have serious reservations.
I bet ATL would do an overhaul of the transit system if they were chosen, I wouldn't say that's a knock
This is how: "Thanks in part to Seattle’s voracious need for new office space, in July, a firm that tracks construction cranes worldwide, Rider Levett Bucknall, said that the city led the U.S. with 58 cranes at work around town. Number two was Los Angeles, which has six times Seattle’s area, with just 36 cranes. Seattle has held its lead—often by far—for some time" They literally buy whatever they want, knock it down, and build it up again
Dallas would be a solid choice. Plenty of space downtown, already a few high rises proposed they could partner with. Light rail and steeetcars are going to triple by '23 and the subway will be done by '24, plus the upcoming rail to Houston and two large airports
It's slated to be a park, IIRC, so its city owned. Would be surprised if it's not mentioned in the proposal. There's a lot of vacant downtown office space either way.
We are already in the process and have a lot of investment into numerous projects. At worse, this would speed up some of the projects
Yea i just dont believe its that lot. It will be designated as a Park and the GWCC (state) and Arthur Blank will want it kept that way. Especially when green space on the westside is and has been part of the initiative. Theyre not already committed to public/private investment into that property, then flip it to Amazon with much more suitable real estate in better downtown areas. And youre leaving out the bigger chip at play: the State and City willingness to whore tax incentives to private entities.
I think it will be Atlanta, cheap place to build a HQ, good labor force, sprawling metropolis, city will bend over backwards with tax incentives.
DFW could actually make it work. The DART system allows them to build on land off in the former tech district which has access to high capacity fiber and could be placed strategically close to downtown. They could even do something similar to what State Farm or Toyota just did as they both relocated to the DFW area. Both constructed large campuses with a mixed use footprint close by.
I'm not going to act like I really have any clue, but ATL does check a lot of boxes and the Gulch would fit the bill. The previous study put it as 8.6 million square feet of space of space
Chicago site vying for this Sterling Bay Woos Amazon HQ With Renamed Finkl Steel Site — Lincoln Yards https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170913/lincoln-park/finkl-steel-lincoln-yards-amazon-sterling-bay
No, there are a couple of businesses like Serta that will be moving there, but I don't believe even a third of the space is used yet. I don't know much about all the specifics, but there was a huge delay with somehow the Dekalb BOE not wanting to contribute, I think, tax funds to its development. Edit: Just looked it up, not sure how much space the new HQ will need but the entire plant site is 165 acres which equates to almost 7.2 million square feet.