Amazon HQ2 RFP

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odurandina said:
That's seems to be the trending gutwrenchy feeling.

Finishing 2nd to DC area would be awful.

and i won't ever stop thinking South Station/Dot Ave would have won easily.
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Boston is ALREADY getting 1 million + sq feet from Amazon almost immediately. In the 20+ years that this HQ@ will take to get over 8 million, Boston might have over 10 million from them incrementally.

Why the angst????? Boston is ALREADY a huge winner in this.
 
odurandina said:
That's seems to be the trending gutwrenchy feeling.

Finishing 2nd to DC area would be awful.

and i won't ever stop thinking South Station/Dot Ave would have won easily.
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I'd be willing to bet it's either the DC, NYC, or Boston metro area at this point. I doubt it goes to any of the other top 20 picks.
 
shmessy said:
Boston is ALREADY getting 1 million + sq feet from Amazon almost immediately. In the 20+ years that this HQ@ will take to get over 8 million, Boston might have over 10 million from them incrementally.

Why the angst????? Boston is ALREADY a huge winner in this.
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I wonder if the new space will just replace their North Reading offices.
 
odurandina said:
That's seems to be the trending gutwrenchy feeling.

Finishing 2nd to DC area would be awful.

and i won't ever stop thinking South Station/Dot Ave would have won easily.
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Why awful?

Amtrak from DC gets you to Philly and DC super quick.

Amtrak from Boston shits the bed all through Connecticut.

DC has a lot more affordable housing available when you look at the WHOLE city, and not just 1/2 mile from white house.

DC has pandas.
 
Boston will be fine without Amazon HQ2. According to Odura if we don't get Amazon we might as well be Kansas City, or if we don't build TALLER we might as well be Oklahoma.
 
jass said:
Connecticut.

DC has a lot more affordable housing available when you look at the WHOLE city, and not just 1/2 mile from white house.
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Really? I have a few friends from college down there and I'm hearing prices are horrific unless you live in the hood. Its the first time I ever heard of having to waive the inspection and buy the house as is without any negotiation and that was like 10 years ago. Can't image what its like now.

tysmith95 said:
Boston will be fine without Amazon HQ2. According to Odura if we don't get Amazon we might as well be Kansas City, or if we don't build TALLER we might as well be Oklahoma.
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OKC already has taller buildings than us! The horror!
 
Didn't you guys know? Boston is a shithole city without Amazon's 2nd HQ and considering that Amazon never had a HQ here, Boston is therefore, always been a shithole city. How will this city ever survive? No wonder why the President never visits here. He hates shithole places.
 
Rover said:
Really? I have a few friends from college down there and I'm hearing prices are horrific unless you live in the hood. Its the first time I ever heard of having to waive the inspection and buy the house as is without any negotiation and that was like 10 years ago. Can't image what its like now.
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Washington DC, just the city, has 61.05sqmi of land

"DC is too expensive" is the equivalent of "Boston is too expensive" when "Boston" means within a mile of Back Bay.

Yes, NYC is expensive if you pretend the Bronx and Staten Island arent part of the city.

And yes, Boston is expensive if you forget about Mattapan and Dorchester.

And DC is ridiculous if you think Anacostia is just a river.
 
jass said:
Washington DC, just the city, has 61.05sqmi of land

"DC is too expensive" is the equivalent of "Boston is too expensive" when "Boston" means within a mile of Back Bay.

Yes, NYC is expensive if you pretend the Bronx and Staten Island arent part of the city.

And yes, Boston is expensive if you forget about Mattapan and Dorchester.

And DC is ridiculous if you think Anacostia is just a river.
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Great, but you wrote that DC has "a lot more affordable housing" than Boston. Anecdotally it seems both cities and their respective metro areas are similar in cost and amount of affordable housing.
 
DC, Boston, NYC, etc are much more expensive then a place like Columbus no matter how you slice it. And Dorchester isn't that cheap anymore.
 
I think you guys are forgetting that in addition to (/instead of) the published criteria, this is also (/really) about a shakedown for incentives and give-aways.

And even if Boston doesn't 'win' the HQ2 dog and pony show, this exercise will put us 'on the record' for what we're willing to pay (and what 'competing' cities would pay) for any future investment by amazon that doesn't happen to carry the HQ2 branding.
 
CSTH said:
I think you guys are forgetting that in addition to (/instead of) the published criteria, this is also (/really) about a shakedown for incentives and give-aways.

And even if Boston doesn't 'win' the HQ2 dog and pony show, this exercise will put us 'on the record' for what we're willing to pay (and what 'competing' cities would pay) for any future investment by amazon that doesn't happen to carry the HQ2 branding.
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It might not win for the HQ2 but Boston already won. Isn't Amazon looking for additional 1million square feet in Boston in general?

If that is the case I believe Bezos will put the HQ2 in the Midwest---Chicago, Penn, Ohio. I could see Austin.

He's already situated in Boston. (east coast foot print is large enough)

I doubt D.C. ---D.C. is a disaster at this point. Amazon will have a small political office footprint in the area but no HQ2 in my opinion.
 
Amazon said plan on an average salary per employee that is north of $100,000. (AI engineers command $300,000, $400,000, $500,000.) These are not people who can only make ends meet by having to live in Mattapan, or Everett, or Lynn. Median home price in Malden is $419,000; about six miles away as the crow flies from Suffolk Downs.
____________________________

IMO, the biggest hurdle for the three DC bids is that the only 'strong' university is University of Maryland. The USN$WR ranking for University of Maryland's computer science department is #42.
 
tysmith95 said:
Boston will be fine without Amazon HQ2. According to Odura if we don't get Amazon we might as well be Kansas City, or if we don't build TALLER we might as well be Oklahoma.
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This. Would it be nice to get HQ2? Sure. But even if we don't get Boston will still be home to one of Amazon's largest employment centers and that's more than fine, imo. Amazon has and will be growing their footprint in this area regardless of HQ2.

It really is insane when you think of just how many cities are falling over themselves trying to lure Amazon. Politicians salivating at the thought of being able to say "they" landed this during their administration.
 
I had another idea/theory: The winner is going to become HQ1 and Boston will be HQ2 and/or backup plan in case things don't go their way at the new site.
 
jklo said:
I had another idea/theory: The winner is going to become HQ1 and Boston will be HQ2 and/or backup plan in case things don't go their way at the new site.
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I have zero idea what you are talking about. HQ1 is already in Seattle.
 
jass said:
Not what Im seeing at all.

3 beds, 2 baths, a 15 minute metro ride to the white house for $159,000.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sa...8,-76.971717,38.854555,-76.994784_rect/15_zm/
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AMAZON employees are NOT LIVING in Anacostia.

jklo said:
I had another idea/theory: The winner is going to become HQ1 and Boston will be HQ2 and/or backup plan in case things don't go their way at the new site.
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No.

Here is a more likely scenario. HQ2 is limited to phases I-III, 20,000 employees, and 3.5 million square feet.

Having ruled out the Bay area, Amazon concludes that no single city is capable of generating enough in the way of people resources to support a HQ2 workforce of 50,000. The employees and the 4.5 million square feet that would have come with Phase IV are dispersed to several centers which focus on particular functions/programs. Under this scenario, for example, Atlanta might get HQ2 and 20,000 employees, and Boston would get 10,000 employees for robotics, machine learning, etc.

The idea of a co-equal HQ2 is the nuttiest idea I have ever heard, UNLESS you intend splitting Amazon down the road. Then, it makes a lot of sense.
 
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