Amazon HQ2 RFP

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Under Armour is in a bit of a financial squeeze. Laying off people. A bank, Capital One, paid Sahamore Development, Under Armour's development arm, $5,600 a square foot for rather small-sized commercial space in DC that had been extensively renovated. No bank pays that kind of money, unless it is part of a larger transaction. Goldman has just invested over $200 million in Port Covington. Strikes me as similar to what Goldman did on those properties on the south side of Summer St.; in for a few years, and then bolts.
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Amazon seems to be way behind several other tech companies in Artificial Intelligence. If that will be a focus area for HQ2, the existing AI centers tend to be near universities.

> Google Brain is based in Mountain View, California and has satellite groups in Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, Montreal, New York City, San Francisco, Toronto, and Zurich

> Google Deepmind, London, Edmonton Alberta (Univ of Alberta) 400 employees total

> Microsoft AI, Redmond WA, and Cambridge (MIT.)

> Facebook currently operates AI research centers in Paris, New York City and Menlo Park,

>Open AI (Elon Musk) San Francisco, Chicago
 
Another thing to consider here is a lot of down and out cities have great plans, but they often times don't actually come to fruition. 30 years ago Hartford was supposed to build the new tallest building in New England. Then the recession hit and the city has never recovered. (PS - as an aside I don't care if people "come down hard" on me for calling a place down and out. This message board is tame compared to the college hockey one I'm on).

So take any distressed/troubled/dumpy city. Amazon would be taking a big leap of faith that what their vision will actually come true (expanded transit and infrastructure for example where none now exists) as opposed to a city where these things are already in place. Its one reason why I think people are overlooking NYC a little in all of this. You could plop Amazon 2 HQ in there tomorrow and you really wouldn't be causing any disruption to the city's operations.
 
stellarfun said:
Thanks for tagging that about Facebook and machine learning, Digital Islandboy.

Several other cities, it seems most of the detail being kept under wraps,

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article179591851.html
More than 20 sites

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/seattle-region-releases-joint-bid-amazons-second-headquarters/
Greater Seattle, 522 pages, 10 sites

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article179639436.html
Miami, eight sites
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Never dawned on me that Seattle was going to bid on it too. Talk about "doubling down".

That is downright badass!

.
 
You can't say i wasn't out on a limb, respectfully and disrespectfully warning them. Somerville's plan is strong. My plans A and B were considerably better than Walsh's plan.
 
SouthEnder88 said:
"In the weeks leading up to the Oct. 19 bid deadline for Amazon HQ2, Boston was widely seen as a leading contender. Now that the city’s official bid has been made public, some question if it is a case of 'Boston. Yes.' or 'Boston: Swing and a Miss.',
Ouch.

https://www.bisnow.com/boston/news/...hq2-bid-suffolk-downs-or-suffolk-downer-80714
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The Somerville plan is better if Amazon wants Somerville's plan. If Amazon wants what Boston is selling, then that one's better. This piece makes no justified arguments for or against, really - it just lists all the pluses of Suffolk Downs and says "eh, these don't matter. Look at THESE AWFUL MINUSES" as if other cities are putting forward perfect plans. We know from reading/viewing them that none are.

Personally, I support Somerville's idea above Boston's, but frankly both of them are strong contenders against what we've seen from Philadelphia, DC, and Chicago. Austin is proposing something out in the burbs. Charlotte and Miami aren't confident enough in their proposals to even have them aired publicly.

This piece is clickbait, and we don't have much more to discuss until Amazon announces a shortlist and we can stop guessing about what really matters to them.
 
Real estate prices would skyrocket in and around somerville, Medford, Everett, Revere if Amazon chooses Somerville or Revere. Based on Supply and demand
 
TheRifleman said:
Real estate prices would skyrocket in and around somerville, Medford, Everett, Revere if Amazon chooses Somerville or Revere. Based on Supply and demand
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They would do the same if in Boston, what is the point here?
Up to 50,000 employees, many with spouses or families, is a lot of people to house.

You act like Somerville and Boston are in distinctly different locations.
 
TheRifleman said:
Real estate prices would skyrocket in and around somerville, Medford, Everett, Revere if Amazon chooses Somerville or Revere. Based on Supply and demand
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Good god could you imagine the traffic impact if they choose Somerville!
 
shmessy said:
Never dawned on me that Seattle was going to bid on it too. Talk about "doubling down".

That is downright badass!

.
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Agreed! That's awesome.

Can't speak for everyone but I think a lot of angst has to do with "Suffolk Downs......really?" as a lot of people don't consider it a hot property right now unlike the Seaport or Kendall. To paraphrase Pierre Trudeau who said "don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the opposition" I too am having some trouble wrapping my mind around that site as the best Boston can do, but you have to line it up with what other cities are proposing. At initial glance I haven't heard of any particular site that blows away everybody else's proposal although admittedly I haven't seen all 240 or so...
 
Rover said:
Agreed! That's awesome.

Can't speak for everyone but I think a lot of angst has to do with "Suffolk Downs......really?" as a lot of people don't consider it a hot property right now unlike the Seaport or Kendall. To paraphrase Pierre Trudeau who said "don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the opposition" I too am having some trouble wrapping my mind around that site as the best Boston can do, but you have to line it up with what other cities are proposing. At initial glance I haven't heard of any particular site that blows away everybody else's proposal although admittedly I haven't seen all 240 or so...
Click to expand...

Huge open parcel that's served by two (two!) existing heavy rail rapid transit stops, and (almost) right next to I-90, and (almost) walking distance to an international airport.

Its not ideal and it wouldn't be my first choice in Boston for this (its surrounded by residential neighborhoods (and gas tanks))

... but on paper, at least, that's a pretty remarkable profile ...
 
Blackdog said:
Good god could you imagine the traffic impact if they choose Somerville!
Click to expand...

If they choose Somerville, it'd be because:
1) Many will bike or walk to work
2) Many will take the Green or Orange
3) The buses from Cambridge will get upgraded.
 
The major, perhaps fatal, flaw in Somerville's bid is that its 'pie in the sky'. There is no commitment from Delaware North or anyone else to build / sell their towers to Amazon.

Amazon apparently wants to own its buildings in HQ2, not lease them. Delaware North may have zero interest in selling a building to Amazon, or Boston Properties, or anyone else with a permitted building for that matter.

Amazon was adamant that the site be ready to go, no zoning hassles, no infrastructure issues related to the site itself (e.g., great site, no utilities), etc. Particularly for the first building, which is why they would take an existing, empty building with 500,000 gsf.

Anyone betting that Somerville's mayor can get Delaware North to sign on the dotted line by January 2018 to sell their office building to Amazon?
 
stellarfun said:
The major, perhaps fatal, flaw in Somerville's bid is that its 'pie in the sky'. There is no commitment from Delaware North or anyone else to build / sell their towers to Amazon.

Amazon apparently wants to own its buildings in HQ2, not lease them. Delaware North may have zero interest in selling a building to Amazon, or Boston Properties, or anyone else with a permitted building for that matter.

Amazon was adamant that the site be ready to go, no zoning hassles, no infrastructure issues related to the site itself (e.g., great site, no utilities), etc. Particularly for the first building, which is why they would take an existing, empty building with 500,000 gsf.

Anyone betting that Somerville's mayor can get Delaware North to sign on the dotted line by January 2018 to sell their office building to Amazon?
Click to expand...
probably not but I'd say something could happen with north point.
 
Arlington said:
If they choose Somerville, it'd be because:
1) Many will bike or walk to work
2) Many will take the Green or Orange
3) The buses from Cambridge will get upgraded.
Click to expand...

If they choose the Somerville plan (or some variation of the plan) then Amazon's HQ2 main building address would still have a Boston address which is probably pretty far up there in terms of unstated requirements. And I don't see Amazon vacating their presence in Kendall Square either way.

Seems the only reason that Boston didn't also proposes Somerville's proposal was that it would be more like 20% - 40% inside Boston city limits and at least half or much more office space would be over the city line in Cambridge, Somerville and Everett even. Suffolk Downs would be more like 60% to 80% square footage inside Boston city limits with the remainder over the city line in Revere.

Which is a ding against the Boston-centric proposal, instead of laying all the options on the table they jockeyed for a bigger slice of the pie to the detriment of a potentially more robust proposal including more options for additional square footage to the North and across the river.

Like I've said, nothing against including Suffolk Downs as part of the proposal. It is good to show Amazon an option like that which has everything on paper.

I just seriously doubt that it is compelling. Mostly due to the phasing... the 500,000 square feet up front is the problem. If you are putting up a lone building in two years then are you going to really want to wait for another ten to fifteen years of constant construction until you get to a nice campus? I just don't see the first 500,000 square foot building going there or even maybe the next couple million square feet. More like an option for the last 3 to 5 million square feet if they even need it in ten years.

Just doesn't compare with picking sites which are already adjacent to the city's existing downtown fabric... Downtown, Ft Point/South Station/Seaport or North Station. Or across the river in Kendell. You don't have to wait for phase 4 or phase 5 to have a nice place to work and attract talent if you go there. You have prime real estate in a great walk-able city (with dunkin donuts and starbucks and on every corner, restaurants and pubs to walk for lunch/dinner and an existing tech business community) that is ready with existing or already approved buildings right now.

Hopefully, there was enough of those other potential options conveyed to Amazon that we can get to the table and let Amazon tell the City and State what they really would find most appealing about coming to Boston.

The cost of hiring and retaining people is far greater than the cost of real estate and part of attracting and retaining top talent is choosing locations that can't be beat. Boston has those locations.
 
stellarfun said:
The major, perhaps fatal, flaw in Somerville's bid is that its 'pie in the sky'. There is no commitment from Delaware North or anyone else to build / sell their towers to Amazon.

Amazon apparently wants to own its buildings in HQ2, not lease them. Delaware North may have zero interest in selling a building to Amazon, or Boston Properties, or anyone else with a permitted building for that matter.

Amazon was adamant that the site be ready to go, no zoning hassles, no infrastructure issues related to the site itself (e.g., great site, no utilities), etc. Particularly for the first building, which is why they would take an existing, empty building with 500,000 gsf.

Anyone betting that Somerville's mayor can get Delaware North to sign on the dotted line by January 2018 to sell their office building to Amazon?
Click to expand...

Stellarfun makes some stellar points here. Anyone (including Curtatone) can pull up a map and start circling empty sites. That isn't quite what Amazon asked for. They asked for 100 acres with a single owner and no zoning obstacles. Boston answered the mail on that front in a way that the vast majority of respondents, including Somerville, didn't.

I, among many others, don't think that will be so important in the end. I think the single owner, contiguous parcel is a "nice to have" that would make AMZN's life easy, but it is hardly essential. What Boston's bid did RIGHT was to offer Amazon EXACTLY what they asked for AS WELL AS options that we all know are perfectly viable.

If AMZN doesn't find its Cinderella parcel, meaning that Suffolk Downs and any other "perfect" sites aren't all that palatable, then Boston's supporting options, Somerville's pitch, and every other thing under the sun is on the table. Suffolk Downs will get extensive attention BEFORE all the others precisely because it hits every single requirement in the RFP.

I don't like that SD was the best option for Boston to put forward, but what I like doesn't matter. They did the right thing. Curtatone, lacking a Cinderella parcel of his own, did the best that he could.
 
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