Amazon: The Thread | 5,000 Jobs | 1M SQFT in Nashville Yards

[titanhog]

Sure are a lot of "boogeymen" these days in America...and growing all the time.

 

[WebberThomas4]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/02/15/community-groups-call-scrutiny-nashvilles-amazon-deal/2884974002/

“Yellow t-shirts reading: "Amazon Gentrification Now with 2 day Delivery" were distributed.” 

[satalac]

19 minutes ago, WebberThomas4 said:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/02/15/community-groups-call-scrutiny-nashvilles-amazon-deal/2884974002/

“Yellow t-shirts reading: "Amazon Gentrification Now with 2 day Delivery" were distributed.” 

I'm sure the people handing these out are all locals too...

[japan]

On 2/15/2019 at 1:58 PM, Mr_Bond said:

The NY politicians could have gone back to Amazon and asked to renegotiate.  As Amazon said in the press release, this is a long term relationship and we want to be with someone who wants to be with us.  The climate was too hostile.  Now, thousands of New York jobs are going to other cities.

This is happening to other high-tax states.  I recently spoke with someone who just moved here from Chicago who said their salary is the same but they're getting a significant raise from tax savings.  Example: their annual property taxes were $17,000 and are now $3,000 (same value home).

I think the union comments by BDB were the straw that broke the camels back.

[DDIG]

On 2/16/2019 at 1:29 PM, WebberThomas4 said:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/02/15/community-groups-call-scrutiny-nashvilles-amazon-deal/2884974002/

“Yellow t-shirts reading: "Amazon Gentrification Now with 2 day Delivery" were distributed.” 

Yes, the Amazon towers are gentrifying... checks notes... a parking lot in downtown Nashville.

[markhollin]

Tennessee state leaders signal appetite for bigger Amazon Nashville hub after NYC pull out.

More at The Tennessean here:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/tech/2019/02/15/amazon-hq-2-pulls-out-ny-tennessee-leaders-open-to-more-5000-jobs-operations-center-nashville/2872939002/

[KJHburg]

Belmont Univ. students participate in Amazon event at the Ryman.

http://news.belmont.edu/168-belmont-students-and-faculty-participate-in-amazon-live-event/

[Guest]

self-serving ... this only continues the slow bleed of NYC corporate growth
 

"New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed tech-giant Amazon over the weekend; claiming their decision to abandon plans for a Big Apple headquarters was an example of “abuse of corporate power.”

“This is an example of an abuse of corporate power,” said de Blasio on ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday. “Amazon just took their ball and went home. And what they did was confirm people’s worst fears about corporate America.”

“They said they wanted a partnership, but the minute there were criticisms, they walked away,” he added. “What does that say to working people that a company would leave them high and dry simply because some people raised criticisms?”

Edited February 18, 2019 by Guest

[BnaBreaker]

Lol... I guess that's one way to put it Bill... but saying it was just a case of 'a few people offering up polite criticisms' is understating the chasm between the two parties by an almost absurd degree.

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Lol... I guess that's one way to put it Bill... but saying it was just a case of 'a few people offering up polite criticisms' is understating the chasm between the two parties by an almost absurd degree.

In this case...it's not even the two parties.  It's the split within one party (and that's not implying there aren't also splits in the other party, as well (RINO, Tea Party, etc).  We're definitely seeing both parties with many "splinter" parties developing.

[Pdt2f]

7 minutes ago, titanhog said:

In this case...it's not even the two parties.  It's the split within one party (and that's not implying there aren't also splits in the other party, as well (RINO, Tea Party, etc).  We're definitely seeing both parties with many "splinter" parties developing.

I thought his comment was more about the split between Amazon and the anti-Amazon crowd. Although the split in the D party definitely has something to do with this, it was almost a proxy battle between the two sides. 

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

I thought his comment was more about the split between Amazon and the anti-Amazon crowd. Although the split in the D party definitely has something to do with this, it was almost a proxy battle between the two sides. 

Either way...there's a lot of splits going on. 

[KJHburg]

Now activists in Arlington County VA are trying to derail the Amazon HQ2 split into two now 17 locations.    In my opinion Amazon brought this on themselves with their huge circus like HQ2 search.  However unlike NYC this is not likely to derail this location.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2019/02/19/amazon-skeptics-hope-to-derail-arlington.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2019-02-19&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1550609657&j=86763421

[smeagolsfree]

Everyone always hates big companies no matter who they are. I think you are correct that they are fine in VA.

 

Hey, burg, remember you said you have never seen so many hotels under construction in your life, well four more have started with another 8 or so to break ground in the Downtown /Gulch/SoBro area this year, maybe more

[titanhog]

10 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

Everyone always hates big companies no matter who they are. I think you are correct that they are fine in VA.

 

Hey, burg, remember you said you have never seen so many hotels under construction in your life, well four more have started with another 8 or so to break ground in the Downtown /Gulch/SoBro area this year, maybe more

I haven't seen any numbers...but other than maybe Vegas and Orlando, do we have more hotels than any city our size?

[21jump]

24 minutes ago, titanhog said:

I haven't seen any numbers...but other than maybe Vegas and Orlando, do we have more hotels than any city our size?

Off the top of my head, I would think New Orleans then possibly Jacksonville, Tampa and Indianapolis. The last three because I read a few years ago that there is a minimum requirement for hotel rooms required to host a Super Bowl and Nashville didn't meet those requirements at the time.  It's very likely we've passed Indianapolis and possibly Jacksonville by now.

[DDIG]

56 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Now activists in Arlington County VA are trying to derail the Amazon HQ2 split into two now 17 locations.    In my opinion Amazon brought this on themselves with their huge circus like HQ2 search.  However unlike NYC this is not likely to derail this location.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2019/02/19/amazon-skeptics-hope-to-derail-arlington.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2019-02-19&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1550609657&j=86763421

This is a major initiative for Unions. StandUp Nashville is a Union group with Fresh Branding, as is all of these groups in each market. They are all working off the same attack Amazon playbook.

[tragenvol]

23 minutes ago, 21jump said:

Off the top of my head, I would think New Orleans then possibly Jacksonville, Tampa and Indianapolis. The last three because I read a few years ago that there is a minimum requirement for hotel rooms required to host a Super Bowl 

For Jacksonville's Super Bowl, cruise ships were required to  be brought in to get to the minimum number of hotel rooms for the event.  I believe that Nashville has more hotel rooms than each of these cities.

Edited February 19, 2019 by tragenvol

[Pdt2f]

49 minutes ago, titanhog said:

I haven't seen any numbers...but other than maybe Vegas and Orlando, do we have more hotels than any city our size?

I found a Tennessean article from May 2018 that stated that in the 13 county Nashville metro area there were ca. 360 hotels with around 42,000 rooms, with another 100+ and ca. 15,000 rooms “in the works.” I believe New York has around 110,000 rooms, for comparison, although I’m not sure if that’s just manhattan, the five boroughs, or the metro area. Orlando and Vegas have absurd amounts for obvious reasons, and Nashville (along with 99% of cities) will never command the demand that those cities have.  Interestingly, though, Nashville hotel rates are still crazy high, while Vegas casino suites can be had at less than $100 per night, depending on the time of year. 

[DDIG]

12 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

I found a Tennessean article from May 2018 that stated that in the 13 county Nashville metro area there were ca. 360 hotels with around 42,000 rooms, with another 100+ and ca. 15,000 rooms “in the works.” I believe New York has around 110,000 rooms, for comparison, although I’m not sure if that’s just manhattan, the five boroughs, or the metro area. Orlando and Vegas have absurd amounts for obvious reasons, and Nashville (along with 99% of cities) will never command the demand that those cities have.  Interestingly, though, Nashville hotel rates are still crazy high, while Vegas casino suites can be had at less than $100 per night, depending on the time of year. 

Vegas is a little different though, right? They don't care as much for the room rates as what you lose while staying there.

[KJHburg]

7 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Everyone always hates big companies no matter who they are. I think you are correct that they are fine in VA.

 

Hey, burg, remember you said you have never seen so many hotels under construction in your life, well four more have started with another 8 or so to break ground in the Downtown /Gulch/SoBro area this year, maybe more

Nashville has a whole lot of rooms going on much more than I have seen in other cities.  Much more than in Charlotte but our business is probably 75/80% business travel with the rest as leisure.   Charlotte is fairly cheap on the weekends unless a special event is going on just like Atlanta.  Nashville I have found seems high on the weekends and weekdays as your tourist business is booming.  

And I do think Nashville could handle the Super Bowl with its hotels better than Jacksonville or Indy.  However like Charlotte I would not count on it unless something changes.   the NFL does not want to go to un covered stadiums in late Jan or Feb. they made the one exception for NYC.  However there is some talk with new Panthers owner of adding a roof which could put us in contention.  Jacksonville was crazy as they floated in cruise ships for additional rooms something Nashville or Charlotte could not do! 

Nashville's convention business is gotta be in the top 10 now in the country does anyone have the stats on that?   Here are the top 5 https://www.thebalancesmb.com/the-5-most-popular-convention-cities-in-the-us-1888287      

 

[WebberThomas4]

 

[japan]

Briley, asleep at the wheel again?

[DDIG]

9 minutes ago, japan said:

Briley, asleep at the wheel again?

It isn't about Briley, I'd say it is a more cautious approach because of the actions of attitude of the council.

[nashvylle]

The AB incentives were deferred until March 5th. Council just passed a resolution late last year that more details have to be given on what types of jobs will be created. I also think Cooper and another CM were seeing if any of the Music City Center fund can be used for these incentives.

Maybe the same issues are coming up for Amazon.

Has the state of TN passed the AB / Amazon incentives?