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Amazon Second HQ

jje1000 said:
Moody's picks for top (US) contenders:

https://www.economy.com/dismal/analysis/commentary/298322/Metro-Analysts-on-Amazons-Top-Cities/
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WislaHD said:
Oh, this is going to be some great schadenfreude.
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salsa said:
I like how Rochester is ranked 4th in the article, but then when you start to read about it you learn that:
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Rochester, 4th? Boston, 9th? Was this supposed to be a serious analysis?

I'm especially amused at "one would have to drive more than four hours to find an airport with direct flights to Amazon’s home base of Seattle.". Rochester doesn't have a chance.
 
44 North said:
Yeah I'd expect better from Moody's. Meanwhile more *impartial* shortlists are coming up, in the form of online betting. Toronto in 4th with 7/1 odds.

image

http://fortune.com/2017/10/23/amazon-hq2-atlanta/
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People keep saying Atlanta, and I really don't get the appeal for Amazon, epsically relative to Boston.

Atlanta's biggest benefit is their airport. However, the city suffers from unparalleled sprawl, a terrible mass transit system and some of the the worst road congestion in North America. Amazon would lose access to Boston's world class educational facilities (although Atlanta is still competitive in this regard), and I suspect Georgia won't be as good as a culture fit as Boston. Atlanta's tech salaries are lower, but the difference seems to be only around $10k/year/person.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
People keep saying Atlanta, and I really don't get the appeal for Amazon, epsically relative to Boston.

Atlanta's biggest benefit is their airport. However, the city suffers from unparalleled sprawl, a terrible mass transit system and some of the the worst road congestion in North America. Amazon would lose access to Boston's world class educational facilities (although Atlanta is still competitive in this regard), and I suspect Georgia won't be as good as a culture fit as Boston. Atlanta's tech salaries are lower, but the difference seems to be only around $10k/year/person.
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For awhile now my view is that there will be an eventual tossup between Atlanta and Pittsburgh. But not for any long list of complex reasons offered elsewhere, it's more basic. Pittsburgh because it's sort of central to the "rust belt", and it's landlocked. In other words a perceptive alternative to high-tech latte coastal Seattle. And Atlanta because it's a bit of the geographic opposite to Seattle's NW location by being in the far SE.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
People keep saying Atlanta, and I really don't get the appeal for Amazon, epsically relative to Boston.

Atlanta's biggest benefit is their airport. However, the city suffers from unparalleled sprawl, a terrible mass transit system and some of the the worst road congestion in North America. Amazon would lose access to Boston's world class educational facilities (although Atlanta is still competitive in this regard), and I suspect Georgia won't be as good as a culture fit as Boston. Atlanta's tech salaries are lower, but the difference seems to be only around $10k/year/person.
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As far as wealthy, white and educated suburbs go, North Atlanta is probably some of your finest. The type of demographic is such, that even though it is white and suburban, Trump actually did far worse than Romney (and overall, they voted overwhelmingly Democrat).

If you want to live that kind of life, North Atlanta offers a very high standard.
 
The biggest factor beyond incentives is personal relationships of CEOs. It’s going to Texas. Bezos has ties there. I would bet on Austin. If not, then DC, where Bezos owes a large house and a newspaper.

Canadian cities are a real long shot. To start with, why the heck would he reward Canada with 50 000 jobs when the country enforces a $20 de minimis that is hostile to Amazon’s business model? If I were in his shoes I would specifically exclude Canad and announce exactly why.

Also, the requirements were pretty specific. Need tax breaks. Which neither our provincial or federal governments have provided in substantial measure. And a city with great universities. Great as U of T and Waterloo are, they don’t really stack up with the university network in New England, California, New Jersey, etc.

And all that is saide from the PR hit of moving to Canada, in direct contrast to the accolades they get for any town they choose to boost or resurrect.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I see the bid book as a formality to signify interest - an organization as large and versed in data analytics is not going to rely on it for ground truth - they would be doing their homework (if not having done so already). As mentioned previously by someone at U of T Rotman - this is also about selling the city region to other interested parties - Amazon won't be the only ones reading this.

AoD
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I’d be surprised if Bezos didn’t have a shortlist ready before they even asked for bids. I think this is all a ploy to make their preferred cities offer up concessions.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Rochester, 4th? Boston, 9th? Was this supposed to be a serious analysis?

I'm especially amused at "one would have to drive more than four hours to find an airport with direct flights to Amazon’s home base of Seattle.". Rochester doesn't have a chance.
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If you're lucky, you could get to Pearson in three hours from Downtown Rochester, but that article doesn't even consider Canada's existence. Buffalo would be a better fit for Amazon than Rochester.
 
If Amazon Rochester had 50,000 people working for them, plus any spinoffs or related businesses, I could see an airline opening up some direct flights to Seattle.
 
I’m wondering if a collapse of NAFTA would hurt us or help us.

My guess is that it would help. If Amazon exports to Canada and Mexico from the US and faces major tariffs because both of their HQs are in the US, it would be better if they had a Canadian HQ that can sell in Canada and export to Mexico without those tariffs. NAFTA also regulates employment visas. Suddenly, Amazon would find it very difficult to recruit Canadians, a major source of technology talent whereas the US is a drying up pool of new tech graduates.

On the other hand, if Amazon’s biggest market is the US and Canada’s 1/10th of the population is negligible to their business, leaving NAFTA would hurt our chances since a Canadian Amazon would have to export to the US, incurring those tariffs.
 
I believe that tariffs depend on the origin of the goods, not the location of the head office. However I do agree that the general protectionist and anti-immigration sentiment coming from the White House right now does make setting up offices outside of the US far more attractive in terms of talent recruitment.
 
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