Amazon HQ2 RFP

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jass said:
Im pretty sure "local sports fan culture" ranks somewhere between "color hue of LED streetlights" and "geese per square mile" in their internal ranking system.
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Not when you have to live in the neighborhoods with those people. It comes down to culture.

Things happen in Philadelphia that do not happen in many other cities.
 
shmessy said:
Not when you have to live in the neighborhoods with those people. It comes down to culture.

Things happen in Philadelphia that do not happen in many other cities.
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Potential Amazon employees may have their cars destroyed for parking in the "wrong" spot on a public street.

Thats what happens when you have to live in the neighborhoods with those people. It comes down to culture.

I guess DC is a lock

  • No sports culture
  • No space saving
  • Fewer geese
 
Bergeron37 said:
I have a feeling they go with the Washington DC area for HQ2. Bezos has a 2nd home there and with all that Amazon plans to do in the future, I feel like they want to be as close as possible to the political hub of the country for lobbying purposes.
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I've heard this argument dozens of times and, quite frankly, I don't get it. How does putting their HQ in/around DC give them a stronger hand with the government?

DC has no representation in Congress, so if they locate within the District they will have 0 people with political power advocating directly on their behalf.

If they locate in VA or MD, they'll have those state's delegations but that's it. Which isn't any different than if they picked MA, GA, TX, etc.

Amazon already has power in DC. They bought the Washington Post and have a major lobbying arm. Putting a HQ office there will do nothing to increase that, Congress doesn't actually care about DC or the surrounding area!
 
jass said:
Potential Amazon employees may have their cars destroyed for parking in the "wrong" spot on a public street.
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...or even worse, they may have their car keyed/windows bashed in for parking in a spot that someone else pretended to shovel out for 5 minutes.
 
lexicon506 said:
I've heard this argument dozens of times and, quite frankly, I don't get it. How does putting their HQ in/around DC give them a stronger hand with the government?

DC has no representation in Congress, so if they locate within the District they will have 0 people with political power advocating directly on their behalf.

If they locate in VA or MD, they'll have those state's delegations but that's it. Which isn't any different than if they picked MA, GA, TX, etc.

Amazon already has power in DC. They bought the Washington Post and have a major lobbying arm. Putting a HQ office there will do nothing to increase that, Congress doesn't actually care about DC or the surrounding area!
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Huh?

They wouldn't be lobbying DC municipal politicians and bureacrats. They would be lobbying national politicians and bureaucrats. It's easier to do if you can walk down the street and have lunch with them. Hence, K Street.

They could care less about Eleanor Holmes Norton.

That being said, an H2Q wouldn't be about lobbying at all. They could simply hire a 100 person lobbying office to do that.
 
shmessy said:
That being said, an H2Q wouldn't be about lobbying at all. They could simply hire a 100 person lobbying office to do that.
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If you actually read my post you would see that's exactly the point I was making.

My question stands: Amazon already has a DC lobbying presence and owns the town's newspaper of record, how would hiring 50,000 engineers and software developers in the DC area help them influence government policy?
 
lexicon506 said:
If you actually read my post you would see that's exactly the point I was making.

My question stands: Amazon already has a DC lobbying presence and owns the town's newspaper of record, how would hiring 50,000 engineers and software developers in the DC area help them influence government policy?
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Especially when they're bringing jobs to a place with no representation in the legislative branch.
 
lexicon506 said:
If you actually read my post you would see that's exactly the point I was making.

My question stands: Amazon already has a DC lobbying presence and owns the town's newspaper of record, how would hiring 50,000 engineers and software developers in the DC area help them influence government policy?
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I think you misunderstood Bergeron37's point. The 50,000 engineers will not be lobbying Congress. Bezos and the executives would. If Bezos and his top team are there more days of the year then they can be in the Senator from xxx's face at lunch time more often (if they want to be). More likely, they will be able to limo over to NIH, the FDA, Goddard Space National Institute of Standards and Technology, the FCC, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Dept of Commerce, etc. a lot quicker also.

Once again, Eleanor Holmes Norton or whoever is Marion Barry's successor is of virtually no interest to Bezos.
 
With respect to Bergeron37's point, I am unaware of any company that located its headquarters in Greater Washington because it would facilitate its lobbying of the Executive and Legislative branches. The chief executives of a company are supposed to be spending their time managing the company, not lobbying and handholding.

General Dynamics' corporate headquarters is in Falls Church*. It is located there to be close to its main customer. Amazon's main customer is not the Federal government.
*Will be moving to a 190,000 sq ft building in Reston.

The significance of General Dynamics presence in Falls Church is exemplified by the signage for the building where it has its offices.

https://www.bizjournals.com/washing...moving-hq-from-falls-church-to.html#i/8206832

(For the curious, a photo of the restaurant which gets almost equal billing.)
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KG1m3rnf...I/-QQIM4NKuNw/s1600/2941+Main+Dining+Room.jpg
 
Only about half of the big defense primes are headquartered in the DC metro area. That is the most obvious industry to need access to government agencies (though not so much direct access to Congress) and they all have offices near DC, but not necessarily headquarters. If Raytheon and L3 don’t see any value in sitting their executives or the bulk of their workforce in DC, I certainly don’t buy the argument that Amazon does.

Notably, at least to me, the defense contractors are all headquartered in the northeast with the exception of Boeing in Chicago. I still think an NEC city with a subway system and good universities is the mostly likely Amazon winner. DC metro area is a good candidate based on those criteria (along with Boston, Philly, and NY), not because the federal government is there.
 
stellarfun said:
Supposedly Detroit and Charlotte didn't make the cut because the tech pool was too thin. Supposedly, Amazon is seeking a site where employees can walk between offices.
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That makes no sense with Nashville and Indianapolis still on the list.
 
fattony said:
Only about half of the big defense primes are headquartered in the DC metro area. That is the most obvious industry to need access to government agencies (though not so much direct access to Congress) and they all have offices near DC, but not necessarily headquarters. If Raytheon and L3 don’t see any value in sitting their executives or the bulk of their workforce in DC, I certainly don’t buy the argument that Amazon does.

Notably, at least to me, the defense contractors are all headquartered in the northeast with the exception of Boeing in Chicago. I still think an NEC city with a subway system and good universities is the mostly likely Amazon winner. DC metro area is a good candidate based on those criteria (along with Boston, Philly, and NY), not because the federal government is there.
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Your examples of Raytheon and L3 are bad analogies here. Neither are 1/20th as diverse in their businesses as Amazon which is involved in the Defense/Space/Medical/Commerce/Computer/Entertainment/Farming/Programming/.....etc...etc businesses. Amazon synergizes much more than a Raytheon or L3. Coordination of policy and different fields is more important to Amazon. Is it the #1 reason to move to DC? Not at all. But could it be reason #7 that tips a close race? Sure.

I wasn't basing it on lobbying politicians (the lunch with a Senator thing is a nice side option, but probably #58 down the list of priorities for the H2Q move).

Far higher priority is the access to the medical/tech/biotech/space agencies. As I clearly wrote in my post: "More likely, they will be able to limo over to NIH, the FDA, Goddard Space , National Institute of Standards and Technology, the FCC, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Dept of Commerce, etc. a lot quicker also." By the way, there is a lot of tech talent at those agencies.
 
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The average tenure for an Amazon tech employee is under two years.

http://www.businessinsider.com/employee-retention-rate-top-tech-companies-2017-8

Nobody is sticking around for the gold watch.

To sustain high levels of employment of a very mobile workforce, one needs a location with a robust tech economy, if only to sustain all the comings and goings.
__________________
Way back when, a company like IBM looking to hire entry-level programmers would recruit from music schools. The premise being if one can write music, one can write code. Boston does have an abundance of music schools. :)
 
tysmith95 said:
My guess, Nashville and Indy offered crazy tax incentives.
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Yup. Same reason why Newark is on there although they already ponied up the tax incentives. Amazon would like to start a bidding war. Get Indy excited about being included and maybe they make an offer that tops Newark and makes everyone else up their bid.
 
stellarfun said:
The average tenure for an Amazon tech employee is under two years.

http://www.businessinsider.com/employee-retention-rate-top-tech-companies-2017-8

Nobody is sticking around for the gold watch.

To sustain high levels of employment of a very mobile workforce, one needs a location with a robust tech economy, if only to sustain all the comings and goings.
__________________
Way back when, a company like IBM looking to hire entry-level programmers would recruit from music schools. The premise being if one can write music, one can write code. Boston does have an abundance of music schools. :)
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Amazon employment is growing like crazy

screenshot_2304-768x432.png

[source]

With growth like that tenure has to be short, just because a very large portion of employees must have been hired very recently.
 
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