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


ZestyEd

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9 hours ago, PHofKS said:

Just for reference...

27515496788_e6a3e0a4bc_b.jpg

The left office building from that perspective looks taller than any other building in nashville. With amazon coming will it be built at that height? They may want to at first consolidate everything into one office tower in order to have potential room to expand in the future both in nashville yards and at other sites like river north. I can see amazon making nashville their southeast hub of overall operations (although apparently they will be that for the entire eastern USA as well)

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Got into a disagreement with a friend.  He was angry that we're giving Amazon $120 Million in incentives.  Says he's tired of giving taxpayer money to rich people and expecting no taxes in return...especially the richest man in the world.  I explained to him that Amazon was going to pay $750 Million a YEAR in income to Nashville area residents...who will pay taxes and buy local products...which will easily be a net-gain for the area.

Didn't matter to him.  To him, giving any money to a corporation is wrong.

What is wrong with people?  Do they not understand that by refusing to play the current game, you get nothing at all?  That corporations are the ones who create a large % of jobs in this nation?

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58 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

I think you're both right. I don't like tax breaks for individual corporations by any government entity. Instead, I would rather lower everyone's taxes by the total of the incentives to spread the benefit to everyone.  However, that is in an ideal world in which no one offers tax incentives.  We clearly don't live in an ideal world, so we are stuck giving incentives to generate jobs and investment.  I think it is entirely consistent to actively support tax incentives for proposed projects on order to bring in additional investment and jobs while simultaneously wishing or lobbying for some type of federal intervention that stops the incentives arms race that is ongoing.

But he was taking a sum-zero approach where you don't give away the tax money...so you get nothing in return...which is the opposite of getting the greater return on investment than letting it just sit there.   I was trying to explain to him that in a perfect world...yes...NO incentives would be awesome.  But...that cat is out of the bag.

Believe me...I'm a pretty hard-core conservative who hates spending tax dollars on much of anything...but I also believe sometimes you have to spend money to make money....and that if the rewards are greater than the risk...than it's probably worth it.

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33 minutes ago, jmtunafish said:

For those who think the $120 million Amazon is getting from TN is exorbitant, NY is shelling out $1.5 billion.  Virginia is giving Amazon over $500 million.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/business/economy/amazon-hq2-va-long-island-city-incentives.html

By comparison, Neyland Stadium was supposed to get $340 Million in stadium renovations. That has since been stalled.

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3 hours ago, nativetenn said:

Though I strongly disagree with this mentality, people like the person @titanhog spoke with see it as "us vs. them" and do not believe the ROI on this tax incentive will benefit them at all; instead, they may see it as getting priced out by the wealthy tech elite class. 

I have been clear in the past about my tentative nature toward Amazon in Nashville, but I think we really struck it with this one. This is a great way to test the waters. The ROI will be astronomical and at this point I am convinced nothing can retard Nashville's growth. This is an unprecedented catalyst. Coupled with the growth of our airport, Nashville is no longer just a mid-sized dot on the map. 

The use of tax incentives puts a greater burden on our political leadership to choose wisely as to which opportunities we pay up for.  Having a governor with serious business leadership experience helps significantly.  If our mayor and governor have little experience and/or knowledge of business and economics, they will pursue opportunities in the sectors that concentrate our dependency on certain subindustries or businesses that will sell well with their electorate.

In other words, we must spend our tax incentive money in a way that brings the best benefit to our region through the entire business cycle.

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In all honesty I don't like the idea that governments have to bend over backwards so much for mega-corporations either. I think that this entire search process for Amazon in general reached somewhat ridiculous levels in this regard. Out of curiosity, what benefits will this bring to the average Nashvillian? I do think that the economic strength and stability of the city will have never looked better, but home prices and cost of living in general will undoubtedly rise.  Infrastructure will also be under further strain and without any real plans to really alleviate it with the voting down of the transit plan. I can totally empathize with the resentment toward using tax breaks to entice business in this regard. 

 

At the same time, I acknowledge that it's really the only way to remain competitive now because if you don't then some other city/state government will. It's not my ideal vision for society, but I guess I can't argue with the results. Still, I definitely don't think it's invalid to question why this is the reality. I hope this thread isn't an inappropriate place to discuss this, but I'd love to hear some more perspectives on the topic. 

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7 minutes ago, henburg said:

In all honesty I don't like the idea that governments have to bend over backwards so much for mega-corporations either. I think that this entire search process for Amazon in general reached somewhat ridiculous levels in this regard. Out of curiosity, what benefits will this bring to the average Nashvillian? I do think that the economic strength and stability of the city will have never looked better, but home prices and cost of living in general will undoubtedly rise.  Infrastructure will also be under further strain and without any real plans to really alleviate it with the voting down of the transit plan. I can totally empathize with the resentment toward using tax breaks to entice business in this regard. 

 

At the same time, I acknowledge that it's really the only way to remain competitive now because if you don't then some other city/state government will. It's not my ideal vision for society, but I guess I can't argue with the results. Still, I definitely don't think it's invalid to question why this is the reality. I hope this thread isn't an inappropriate place to discuss this, but I'd love to hear some more perspectives on the topic. 

Whereas lack of transit clearly did not deter Amazon, maybe it can be a good neighbor and pony up for some improvements.

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14 minutes ago, henburg said:

In all honesty I don't like the idea that governments have to bend over backwards so much for mega-corporations either. I think that this entire search process for Amazon in general reached somewhat ridiculous levels in this regard. Out of curiosity, what benefits will this bring to the average Nashvillian? I do think that the economic strength and stability of the city will have never looked better, but home prices and cost of living in general will undoubtedly rise.  Infrastructure will also be under further strain and without any real plans to really alleviate it with the voting down of the transit plan. I can totally empathize with the resentment toward using tax breaks to entice business in this regard. 

 

At the same time, I acknowledge that it's really the only way to remain competitive now because if you don't then some other city/state government will. It's not my ideal vision for society, but I guess I can't argue with the results. Still, I definitely don't think it's invalid to question why this is the reality. I hope this thread isn't an inappropriate place to discuss this, but I'd love to hear some more perspectives on the topic. 

I think Amazon might be our first real catalyst to make wages start to catch-up with cost of living. They are going to be poaching the ever loving hell out of people, dangling very nice employment packages and the employers here who have gotten away with the status quo for a long time are going to have to up-the-ante or lose their talent. 

Edited by DDIG
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Apologies if someone has already posted this link from the online Tennessean, but highlighting this segment of the article. https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/11/14/nashville-yards-amazon-downtown-development/1990369002/  As several here have posted, it will be the three office buildings, but I expect there will be flexibility in size/shape of them all. So the tallest tower could be more than 32 floors above the Church street level. 

Southwest Value Partners included the undeveloped area to make the project more attractive for people to come and stay. Amazon offices will occupy the tallest office building in the plans, on the northeast corner of Church and 10th avenues. Two shorter "creative office" buildings fronted by the park will have large floor plates and wide open shared rooms, similar to WeWork and other coworking spaces. The walkways, balconies and plazas throughout the development will have consistent refined-industrial designs. The design will reflect the property's history. It formerly served, at different times, as a brick yard, marble yard, lumber yard and rail yard – hence its name. 

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20 minutes ago, henburg said:

In all honesty I don't like the idea that governments have to bend over backwards so much for mega-corporations either. I think that this entire search process for Amazon in general reached somewhat ridiculous levels in this regard. Out of curiosity, what benefits will this bring to the average Nashvillian? I do think that the economic strength and stability of the city will have never looked better, but home prices and cost of living in general will undoubtedly rise.  Infrastructure will also be under further strain and without any real plans to really alleviate it with the voting down of the transit plan. I can totally empathize with the resentment toward using tax breaks to entice business in this regard. 

More people coming to the city means more and more housing. 

Apartments start offering more incentives to sign and lease with them, then with the other guy. 

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