Let the bidding begin. Or should we say ‘let the sweepstakes begin?’
This is going to be primarily about money, just like a sweepstakes for an NFL franchise. Only a few places are reasonably suited for the competition, I would think. Amazon is going to ask for huge subsidies and a cash strapped state can’t offer that. New York already has a “Buffalo Billion” problem, and an Amazon facility in metropolitan New York City would be costly. Same is true of Washington DC and northern Virginia; too costly and limited public transportation. My guess is that Georgia will throw a basket full of cash at Amazon to get the company to relocate to Atlanta. Atlanta’s advantage over Texas is that Atlanta is in the Eastern Time Zone. No point in building another HQ in the west.
Minnesota thinks they have a shot at it. Midwest location with room to build and great access to air, rail and ground transportation. I just don’t know where they would get the money…
The word was Boston was already the place and Amazon was just floating the RFP as way to get a good deal. Denied, of course. Then I heard Denver because of several people on the committee who like to ski. Again, denied. I quasi-work in this field and if I were them, I’d choose Pittsburgh. Lots of reasons. if not there, I’d choose a town that could be transformed. Like St. Louis. Or Huntsville, AL.
I wish they would locate within the triangle made by Portland, Portsmouth, and Manchester. The area is reasonably close to Logan, there’s a reasonable airport in Manchester, I-95 is right there, it is very scenic and attractive with easily accessible outdoor activities in all seasons, there are educated workers and it would be very attractive to more, Plenty of educational institutions, lots of cultural activities in Portland (and of course in Boston, which would be easily accessible by train or car or bus, it could easily absorb more housing without becoming a traffic-clogged mess. And the area could use the jobs. I think it would be a lot better than cramming it into some already-congested metropolitan area.
Thus far, urban affairs experts have expressed some interesting opinions, including Southern Hope’s point about rebuilding a city or having a huge say in promoting a mid-tier city’s development. We’re talking about billions of dollars of impact instigated by Amazon.
I’ll guess that Philadelphia is on the table, one reason being its accessibility to Washington DC (an Amazon requirement) and direct flights to Seattle. Probably more important, Philadelphia has large tracts of attractive land available inside the city limits. The housing stock is also relatively affordable and SEPTA provides decent public transit options (when its workers are not on strike). Riverside locations on Philadelphia offer similarity to the South Lake Union neighborhood in Seattle. The negative is the relatively high income inequality level in Philadelphia (true of Atlanta, also).
From what I am reading thus far, urban planners give Denver an advantage. But I wonder why AZ HQ2 would be located in the west, as is Seattle.
Although I think somewhere near Boston is the top contender, I am throwing out Cincinnati as an option. A small city where they could make a big difference and close to Hebron where they just put their Amazon air fleet (the Cincinnati airport is in Hebron.) Also EST although pretty far west (I think they would want HQ2 geographically far from HQ1).