Amazon planning second headquarters with 50,000 jobs

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by JFK

Will piggy back off this post to and say Calgary has a lot going for it and unless Amazon thinks we're too close to Seattle already or not big and eastern enough we should really be taking this seriously. Educated and skilled workforce, space downtown or not, etc.

And say what you will about His Worship Major Nenshi but the guy loves this city and has the ability to sell it. Glad he'll be leading the charge and hope he continues to be able to.

Despite my skepticism about the chances of Calgary actually landing this, these are excellent points and in my opinion something like this is certainly worth pursuing. And while the chances of a bid being successful may be low, the more we pitch this city to the outside world the more we make it known what there is to offer here. We get our name out there, get it at least considered, and eventually we are potentially viewed as an attractive place to set up shop. The better known the City is the better our chances are that a company will eventually select us the place they want to do business. And then it begins to snowball (hopefully).

Theoretical question:
Assuming the successful city will be required to pitch millions of dollars in grants, rebates etc. is there an appetite in Calgary to do the same if it meant drawing a company like Amazon and it's potential 50 000 jobs plus diversification that would come with it? Traditionally we seem averse to this sort of thing here (and in Alberta in general).

[Krovikan]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

If creating a new data center is a primary objective then it makes even more sense to put the new office in the east. I could see Detroit making a strong pitch for this, inner city is rebounding and adding 50,000 jobs would really speed up their recovery

I doubt it the primary motivations; however I work with a lot of large enterprises and they always have a few datacenters around where their corporate hubs are to facilitate development. These datacenters aren't always production datacenters though.

Sent from my G3123 using Tapatalk

[bluejays]

I could easily see a smaller town/city like Stratford (trying to be the hub for driverless cars), or Waterloo as the winners IF Amazon decides to come to Canada. Those small towns would die to win that bid. A place like Waterloo has all the smart kids that MS and Google farm, so stealing some of that to place a campus there would be smart.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Despite my skepticism about the chances of Calgary actually landing this, these are excellent points and in my opinion something like this is certainly worth pursuing. And while the chances of a bid being successful may be low, the more we pitch this city to the outside world the more we make it known what there is to offer here. We get our name out there, get it at least considered, and eventually we are potentially viewed as an attractive place to set up shop. The better known the City is the better our chances are that a company will eventually select us the place they want to do business. And then it begins to snowball (hopefully).

Theoretical question:
Assuming the successful city will be required to pitch millions of dollars in grants, rebates etc. is there an appetite in Calgary to do the same if it meant drawing a company like Amazon and it's potential 50 000 jobs plus diversification that would come with it? Traditionally we seem averse to this sort of thing here (and in Alberta in general).

Agreed. Even if we don't win, being a finalist is not a bad thing. With Nenshi trying to drag more Silicon Valley up here, being known by Amazon can't do anything else, but help. I don't know if location is a pro or con. We are close to their main office, but in a different country. Is there a logical time zone advantage to having their second HQ further East?

I believe Calgary has been trying to expand logistics for a while as a diversification strategy. Amazon would help immensely.

[Bunk]

I like the Mayor's message - we have to go all in for this. We have lots of good urban and/or suburban choices to make this go.

Just image the present value of what free healthcare to a company for 50,000 employees must be. Put that $ value in the pitch.

- We have a great healthcare system
- We have a top notch public education and university system
- We have political stability
- We have a clean environment (UN ranks as the 'cleanest' major city)
- We have an educated workforce (currently with underemployment)
- We have an open and tolerant society
- We have some of the best infrastructure on the planet
- We are not prone to natural disasters
- We have an affordable office and more important housing stock
- We offer top notch standard of living and quality of life (5th most liveable on the economist's criteria)
- We have ease of access to Seattle

We have about every conceivable possible advantage. If we put our best foot forward, we could have a good chance.

[Azure]

Where will they find 50,000 skilled workers regardless of what city they decide to build this in? Seems like a big ask unless they want to relocate a lot of people.

Calgary is a great place to live. Relocation might not be a terrible idea for lots.

Lower tech salaries as well compared to the US market. Another big plus.

Stable political climate as well (i.e. not randomly deciding to ban or export a certain group of people).

[takinghits]

Can't see the need for another location so close to Seattle so most likely this goes to the east cost or deep south.

Toronto or Waterloo should both be front runners from the Canadian POV however with Bezos/Amazon playing the tight American Politics game would be surprised if this HQ2 moves up to Canada.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by fleury

I could easily see a smaller town/city like Stratford (trying to be the hub for driverless cars), or Waterloo as the winners IF Amazon decides to come to Canada. Those small towns would die to win that bid. A place like Waterloo has all the smart kids that MS and Google farm, so stealing some of that to place a campus there would be smart.

The criteria in the RFP includes it must be a metropolitan area of over 1,000,000 population.

That only leaves 6 options in Canada

Toronto = Very expensive market office and housing
Montreal = Francophone, Quebec factor?
Vancouver = No space, very expensive housing
Calgary = The best
Edmonton = No Good
Ottawa = Zzzzzz

[EldrickOnIce]

One thing Quebec has previously done is given significant tax breaks to corporations, and then exact their kilo of flesh from employees.

[Isikiz]

If their philosophy for HQ2 is anything like their first one, it might need some serious development. Having just visited Seattle, I saw that their campus is pretty impressive. Must be a half a dozen33 buildings - similar to a university campus with common areas, courtyards, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and doggie daycares all within its campus. Seems could be a fit for an area like West Village, Victoria Park, Stampede, or something similar. Since a specific geographic region (i.e. east) has not been specified, it makes me feel inclined to believe that it's less of a factor.

RFP

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Isikiz

If their philosophy for HQ2 is anything like their first one, it might need some serious development. Having just visited Seattle, I saw that their campus is pretty impressive. Must be a half a dozen buildings - similar to a university campus with common areas, courtyards, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and doggie daycares all within its campus. Seems could be a fit for an area like West Village, Victoria Park, Stampede, or something similar. Since a specific geographic region (i.e. east) has not been specified, it makes me feel inclined to believe that it's less of a factor.

Let me get my handy MS Paint out here.

For an Urban Campus - I'd think about in the arena district area. Two Landowners - City and Remington own most of it. A few other parcels could be picked up. You could create a massive urban campus here mixed in with the arena area. Would be friggin awesome.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The criteria in the RFP includes it must be a metropolitan area of over 1,000,000 population.

That only leaves 6 options in Canada

Toronto = Very expensive market office and housing
Montreal = Francophone, Quebec factor?
Vancouver = No space, very expensive housing
Calgary = The best
Edmonton = No Good
Ottawa = Zzzzzz

The no space or expensive housing argument won't really fly since the workers they will hire are the exact people that will buy those expensive houses, and Amazon will obviously build out the space the way they want like they did in Seattle.

Vancouver is probably out because it is so close to Seattle.

Finding 50,000 tech workers is a big ask.

[Fuzz]

It doesn't say 50 000 tech jobs, it's just jobs. Their are going to be logistics people, HR, accounting, lawyers etc...

A big data centre here doesn't make a lot of sense. A small to mid scale one, sure. But you want it near where your users are. But then, they didn't say they are building a data centre.

[transplant99]

I would bet it ends up in the South somewhere...maybe S. Carolina as it very corporate/business friendly.

[afc wimbledon]

Its either Cali, San Jose or Oakland or somewhere in the North East depending on the time zone factors, I don't think anywhere in Canada makes sense given the US is moving into a somewhat protectionist phase and putting the office in Canada would be a waste of political leverage.

Boston or Hartford makes sense, easy recruiting area, close to a bunch of colleges that will pump employees into your data mill

[wittynickname]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Pittsburgh make a hard push for this. Google placed offices here a few years back, it's a green city with a good airport, housing costs are lower than many of the other cities in the Northeast, but we're close enough to those metropolitan areas. It's a growing city with a population trending younger, with a lot of cutting edge tech, good universities, etc. Though I'm honestly not sure how Pittsburgh's tax rates measure up. The cost of living might make it worthwhile despite that.

[nfotiu]

Charlotte or Raleigh might have had a good shot, but NC's political situation with HB2 only kinda repealed and in legal limbo would probably exclude them. I can't think of any SC cities that meet the requirements. Northern Virginia might have a good shot. Maybe Chicago. I'd guess Toronto probably is pretty attractive. I agree that Calgary is way too close to Seattle.

[Frequitude]

This would off course be amazing for Calgary, but I'd think our supply and cost of labor would be too volatile for Amazon.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Isikiz

If their philosophy for HQ2 is anything like their first one, it might need some serious development. Having just visited Seattle, I saw that their campus is pretty impressive. Must be a half a dozen33 buildings - similar to a university campus with common areas, courtyards, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and doggie daycares all within its campus. Seems could be a fit for an area like West Village, Victoria Park, Stampede, or something similar. Since a specific geographic region (i.e. east) has not been specified, it makes me feel inclined to believe that it's less of a factor.

RFP

I was going to mention this. Even with the high vacancy rate in Calgary right now I couldn't see Amazon getting into a downtown tower lease. That type of environment just isn't the type of atmosphere that attracts the tech companies. They would need to build a campus style environment probably in the suburbs somewhere. Maybe this would be a good project for West Village or for the Fire Park area.

[Barnes]

They would build a campus like Apple's new campus I presume. $5billion, 14,200 employees, 175 acres, 2.8 million sq ft.



I don't even know what a 50,000 employee campus would look like and where it would fit. Imperial's Quarry Park Campus is 3,000 employees, 20 acres, 850,000 sq ft. The whole West Village including roads is like 65 acres. Forget Firepark, you'd have to line 'em up nuts to butts to get 50,000 people in that area.

The Pentagon is 6.5 million sq ft, 26,000 employees.