Amazon planning second headquarters with 50,000 jobs - Page 43 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Fuzz · 11-13-2018, 08:29 AM

The Virginia office is going to be staffed only with lobbyists. Make sense now?

Erick Estrada · 11-13-2018, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nfotiu

These are headquarters. Nothing related to distributing hubs. I am guessing the idea is 2 headquarters operating as one with easy transportation between the two. The number one goal is access to an educated, tech work force. Northern VA seemed like the favorite all along with splitting to New York being a late development.

Still that's not the way they advertised it and a lot of cities put a lot of work into their presentations for something that was never IMO done in good faith. This article is pretty good and spells out Amazon's true intentions;

Quote:

The HQ2 selection process was always a racket. Often referred to as a “sweepstakes,” it was designed for only one winner: Amazon.

https://newrepublic.com/article/1521...hurting-cities

Senator Clay Davis · 11-13-2018, 08:36 AM

Amazon used cities to get the best deal for themselves. Not sure why that's so shocking.

dobbles · 11-13-2018, 08:44 AM

The messaging came out recently about the split due to trying to find mass amounts of employees in a single city. Makes sense to me.

Regarding the sweepstakes aspect, I am totally on the other side of the issue. At least in this process amazon was relatively open about it. Let's not act like large companies don't do this in secret every day of the week. They are always pitting municipalities against each other to get public dollars in tax breaks and free infrastructure. The fact that the entire process usually occurs behind closed doors makes this case a tiny bit better IMO.

_Q_ · 11-13-2018, 09:04 AM

I currently work in Crystal City - where Amazon is currently rumored to be opening the Northern Virginia office. The last year has been a bit weird to say the least. A lot of businesses shutting down, a lot of renovations quietly happening in the area, but nobody really knew what the end goal was. A few of us kind of jokingly said a few months ago "this is probably for Amazon HQ2".... Sure enough, here we are.

The area, however makes a ton of sense. The DC metro blue and yellow line have a stop right below my office. It's one metro station away from Reagan Airport, two stops from the Pentagon and 4 stops from downtown DC. There are a lot of restaurants, some new park spaces and housing close by. Yes Washington DC is extremely close, but so is Alexandria (where I currently live). So if you're an Amazon employee and big city life isn't your thing, you can easily find a place in a smaller city like Alexandria or even a more suburban area in Virginia or Maryland.

I'm just glad I'm moving back to Calgary next week as I can't imagine I'll be able to afford rent here for much longer.

Weitz · 11-13-2018, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Seems like a gigantic waste of time in the end and kind of obnoxious, if you ask me. Amazon would have been better off just quietly selecting a site and calling it a day.

Well i'm sure Amazon is going to save a ton of money now on what they got from various governments. I wouldn't be surprised to see more companies do this.

MrButtons · 11-13-2018, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weitz

Well i'm sure Amazon is going to save a ton of money now on what they got from various governments. I wouldn't be surprised to see more companies do this.

I think this was just a different case because Amazon has so much firepower behind it. Even Calgary has that $100M Investment fund and is continually trying to poach companies and talent (mostly tech, but still). I'll be curious to see what other businesses try this because I really don't know many companies a city will bend over backward for.

lazypucker · 11-13-2018, 10:05 AM

Now I am thinking about it more, Calgary and other non-US cities really didn't stand a chance to win the HQ2 bid. Remember Trump is always talking about creating employment in America, bringing jobs back to the States, etc.

Amazon might have thought about having HQ2 in Canada or other places, but they probably are getting a really good deal from the government to stay within in the US.

chemgear · 11-13-2018, 10:07 AM

You'd think they were the IOC or something.

Reaper · 11-13-2018, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chemgear

You'd think they were the IOC or something.

Naw, there'd be continuous economic benefit from Amazon coming to Calgary.

nfotiu · 11-13-2018, 10:32 AM

It looks like they definitely didn't go with the highest bidder:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.63b0284c88a2

New York is paying more than twice what Virginia is, and really isn't a whole lot of money considering the tax revenue coming back.

Nashville got a pretty big center as well. It seemed a few of the bidding cities got Amazon offices out of the process including Vancouver.

nfotiu · 11-13-2018, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazypucker

Now I am thinking about it more, Calgary and other non-US cities really didn't stand a chance to win the HQ2 bid. Remember Trump is always talking about creating employment in America, bringing jobs back to the States, etc.

Amazon might have thought about having HQ2 in Canada or other places, but they probably are getting a really good deal from the government to stay within in the US.

There's no federal money involved, and Trump has no love for Amazon. He'd be perfectly happy shipping the whole company off to Canada if he could.

getbak · 11-13-2018, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Q_

Yes Washington DC is extremely close, but so is Alexandria (where I currently live).

Smart. You'll be in good shape when the zombie apocalypse happens.

_Q_ · 11-13-2018, 10:54 AM

TV crews in front of our office now. My coworker was asked to interview with a local news station.

This is crazy.

Senator Clay Davis · 11-13-2018, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Q_

TV crews in front of our office now. My coworker was asked to interview with a local news station.

This is crazy.

Are they seriously changing the name of the city to National Landing for Amazon?

nfotiu · 11-13-2018, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Are they seriously changing the name of the city to National Landing for Amazon?

It is not actually a city. I don't think it is actually any kind of legal entity. Just a business district.

KTrain · 11-13-2018, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Seems like a gigantic waste of time in the end and kind of obnoxious, if you ask me. Amazon would have been better off just quietly selecting a site and calling it a day.

That's not how you get huge government handouts though.

_Q_ · 11-13-2018, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Are they seriously changing the name of the city to National Landing for Amazon?

Just heard it from a coworker two minutes ago. I guess it's going to be national landing.

SebC · 11-13-2018, 07:11 PM

Ban corporate welfare? (The Atlantic)

nfotiu · 11-13-2018, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SebC

Ban corporate welfare? (The Atlantic)

If the law applied to sports teams too, then athletes would only be getting 7-8 figure contracts

I agree with a lot of the article in general, but Virginia didn't pay a whole lot (800 million or so). They are going to make that back in taxes in the first month or two in state income taxes and local taxes.