Jump to content

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

ZestyEd

By ZestyEd
in Nashville

 Share

Recommended Posts


  • Replies 2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Vrtigo
Vrtigo

It's on the edge of downtown, it's still a solid hunk of density, and it carries the flag of one of the most influential companies in the world. Sure, I'm a little disappointed in the size, but the ne

smeagolsfree
smeagolsfree

A shot of the streetscape of upper 10th.

smeagolsfree
smeagolsfree

Not to mention the 600 jobs being added by Ernst & Young today. I am hearing its official to Nashville Yards.

Posted Images

Tennessine Hamlet

Tennessine

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Dale said:

Not happening at all or just delayed or scaled back ?

Just delayed. To use better wording, it's in a "holding pattern." Should begin in a year or two.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.knoxnews.com/amp/1844337002

If y'all are wondering why I posted this, I'm putting the Amazon incentive in perspective. A lot of money, but we could be shelling out so much more. I think this incentive is absolutely worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dale City

Dale

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

A friend showed me this:

Nashville: "We would never compromise our southern Christian values for money."

Amazon: "We're thinking about opening HQ2."

Nashvegas: *explodes 15 story cross, builds Bezos statue*

Obviously, Amazon was not deterred from locating in maybe the Jesus-ist state in the union.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
titanhog Metropolitan Area

titanhog

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, nativetenn said:

This argument is a classic example of the recurring anti-globalist theme that has become hugely popular as of late.  It all culminates in people feeling left behind by the big guys.  I can understand how people are rubbed the wrong way when they are footing the bill for a tax incentive for a company they will not be working for. The average Amazon employee salary for the 5,000 workers brought to Nashville will be $150,000 per year- three times that of the average American. 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. 

I don't see it as anti-globalist as much as anti-corporations.  Look at how so many people in Queens are mad that Amazon is coming in there and getting tax breaks.  People there are not typically seen as anti-globalists.  And btw...I'm not just picking out liberals in NYC.  There are liberals AND conservatives that hate giving a company like Amazon a tax break...for sometimes the same reasons...and sometimes different reasons.  But...I believe both sides can be shortsighted at times.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mr_Bond Burg

Mr_Bond

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, titanhog said:

There are liberals AND conservatives that hate giving a company like Amazon a tax break...for sometimes the same reasons...and sometimes different reasons.

Yep.  It's a standard position of classical liberalism economics (Austrian) that corporate tax breaks should not occur.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Armacing Hamlet

Armacing

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Mr_Bond said:

Yep.  It's a standard position of classical liberalism economics (Austrian) that corporate tax breaks should not occur.

As someone who ascribes to Austrian economic theory, I would add one refinement to your statement:  We (classical liberals) are opposed to corporate taxes in general, so the thing that we hate about the Amazon deal is that everyone else has to pay corporate taxes.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
titanhog Metropolitan Area

titanhog

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Armacing said:

As someone who ascribes to Austrian economic theory, I would add one refinement to your statement:  We (classical liberals) are opposed to corporate taxes in general, so the thing that we hate about the Amazon deal is that everyone else has to pay corporate taxes.

You're saying liberals don't want corporations taxed?  Or don't want taxes going to corporations?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Armacing Hamlet

Armacing

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, titanhog said:

You're saying liberals don't want corporations taxed?  Or don't want taxes going to corporations?  

I don't want to derail this thread topic, but keeping things simple:  Corporations are not taxed, Individuals are taxed, Shareholders do not have limited liability.  When you take all 3 of those positions into consideration at the same time you come to a completely different philosophy about how corporations and their shareholders interact with society in general.  It's that last position that you don't see espoused very often, but it's the key feature that makes the first two positions possible.

EDIT:  I'm speaking as a "classical liberal".  Very different from what the word liberal means on cable TV.

Edited by Armacing
clarificaiton
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
MidTenn1 Town

MidTenn1

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

I haven't seen this point elaborated on in depth anywhere else, but I look at the AHQ2.3 as priming the pump. The future of our world and national economy depends on having smart people who can write code and meet all kinds of IT requirements.

The Amazon office has the following benefits beyond the obvious creation of 5,000 jobs;

  • Most importantly, I suspect Amazon has a greater long  range plan in mind for Nashville. I optimistically think they plan to grow 'with' Nashville and not ahead of it. There will be much more investment from Amazon as we solve transportation and housing issues and create smarter growth. Local planners will have to quit thinking small. 
  • It immediately increases Nashville's IT cred tremendously and may make it a top 20 metro for IT resources. However, state schools (TSU, Austin Peay, etc.) need the resources to build IT schools that rival the Georgia Techs and U of North Carolinas of the nation if we are to supply the home grown talent to take these jobs. Then, the entire state will see the benefits when high tech industry starts coming to Hohenwald and Union City. 
  • It will encourage other like industry to relocate to Nashville sooner than later. They will want to recruit Amazon's well trained talent for their own purposes.
  • If we (Tennessee and Nashville) want to join the 21st century and not be left behind, we have to turn on a dime and head in that direction. So this may be the dime.

There is a much bigger picture to look at.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Will Whistle-Stop

Will

Posted
Posted

Re: Curbing relo incentives, there are a few ideas advanced in this article : https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/amazons-hq2-spectacle-should-be-illegal/575539/

There are benefits, drawbacks, Constitutional concerns, and potential loopholes in each theory, but it's worth having the conversation at a national level.

1. A federal law that disallows any incentives for relocations

2. Withholding certain federal funds from states who play the incentive game (kind of like how the Feds "withhold" highway $$ from TN because of our open container law, although we still get the money in the form of grants for special DUI prosecutors and other resources)

3. A change in the IRS code making any relocation incentives 100% taxable 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DDIG Hamlet

DDIG

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, PHofKS said:

I haven't seen this point elaborated on in depth anywhere else, but I look at the AHQ2.3 as priming the pump. The future of our world and national economy depends on having smart people who can write code and meet all kinds of IT requirements.

The Amazon office has the following benefits beyond the obvious creation of 5,000 jobs;

  • Most importantly, I suspect Amazon has a greater long  range plan in mind for Nashville. I optimistically think they plan to grow 'with' Nashville and not ahead of it. There will be much more investment from Amazon as we solve transportation and housing issues and create smarter growth. Local planners will have to quit thinking small. 
  • It immediately increases Nashville's IT cred tremendously and may make it a top 20 metro for IT resources. However, state schools (TSU, Austin Peay, etc.) need the resources to build IT schools that rival the Georgia Techs and U of North Carolinas of the nation if we are to supply the home grown talent to take these jobs. Then, the entire state will see the benefits when high tech industry starts coming to Hohenwald and Union City. 
  • It will encourage other like industry to relocate to Nashville sooner than later. They will want to recruit Amazon's well trained talent for their own purposes.
  • If we (Tennessee and Nashville) want to join the 21st century and not be left behind, we have to turn on a dime and head in that direction. So this may be the dime.

There is a much bigger picture to look at.

All great points. I agree strongly with point one. My uneducated guess is that Amazon was really blown away by all things Nashville but for the current tech talent pool. So they said, let's start "small" with 5k and see how we do attracting and building talent. If it goes well, I really think 5k can turn quickly to 10k and 10k to 20k and so on and so forth...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tennessine Hamlet

Tennessine

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, titanhog said:

I don't see it as anti-globalist as much as anti-corporations.  Look at how so many people in Queens are mad that Amazon is coming in there and getting tax breaks.  People there are not typically seen as anti-globalists.  And btw...I'm not just picking out liberals in NYC.  There are liberals AND conservatives that hate giving a company like Amazon a tax break...for sometimes the same reasons...and sometimes different reasons.  But...I believe both sides can be shortsighted at times.

That's a much better term for it. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
markhollin Galactalopolis

markhollin

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

NBJ reports that Amazon didn't commit to Nashville until Monday afternoon.

When state and local economic development officials showed up to work on Monday, they were putting the final touches on a huge jobs announcement for Nashville, set for the following morning at the State Capitol.

Amazon, right?

Nope. At that time, the only planned announcement scheduled for Nov. 13 was accounting giant Ernst & Young, which was revealing plans for 600 jobs in a forthcoming office on Music Row.

At about 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, Amazon executives called Bobby Rolfe, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. In roughly the same window, Amazon also called officials at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, which compiled the region's bid for Amazon's mammoth second corporate headquarters and had been spearheading the recruiting effort.

We now know what Amazon had up its sleeve: Nashville wasn't getting what the company dubbed "HQ2." But Nashville was getting a jolt of 5,000 jobs in an "Operations Center of Excellence" that will be the retail titan's executive office for its logistics business — jobs that would pay average wages of $150,000 a year. Officials proudly noted that it represented Tennessee's biggest ever jobs announcement.

But it wasn't until those Monday phone calls when Amazon definitively committed to bring those jobs to Nashville.

Leading the calls was Holly Sears Sullivan, who spearheaded Amazon's search. Sullivan was a familiar face. From 1999 through 2012, she worked on economic development for Rutherford and Wilson counties.

Sullivan delivered the news: Nashville was going to get 5,000 Amazon jobs. And, the announcement would be made the next morning — a window so short that state and local officials didn't have time to order a banner with Amazon's logo as the backdrop for the news conference.

At 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, Rolfe joined Gov. Bill Haslam and Nashville Mayor David Briley at a podium in the State Capitol to announce the Ernst & Young news. Less than an hour later, they returned to the same microphone to herald the Amazon news.

It made for a one-morning announcement of 5,600 jobs for Nashville, a remarkable and sudden ending to Amazon's continent-wide search for a home for HQ2. The company received 238 bids and narrowed the field of contenders to 20 in January.

It was a result local and state officials didn't even know was possible until roughly a month ago, when a couple of Amazon executives visited Haslam. Over lunch, sitting around the conference table in his office, the executives told Haslam and Rolfe that the company wasn't going to pick Nashville for HQ2.

"But, we have another idea in mind," is what Rolfe recalls the company officials saying next.

"We were told that we were a finalist for that," Rolfe said of the 5,000-job operations hub. "There were clearly other cities under consideration."

It was Amazon's third visit to Nashville, by Rolfe's estimation. By that point, the company had spoken with 40 or 50 local people, from CEOs to community leaders. During their first visit, in late March, they held meetings on the unfinished penthouse level of the 505 condo tower on Church Street, which offers sweeping views of the city. During another visit, they had a roundtable with senior leaders of most of the region's 18 colleges and universities. Several of them, from Tennessee State University to Nashville State Community College, offer degrees or certificates in supply-chain management.

"There would be these bursts of requests for information, and then there would be silence for weeks," said Ralph Schulz, the chamber's president and CEO. "You're just never quite sure what's cooking. We kept saying, 'It's not over.'"

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
henburg Hamlet

henburg

Posted
Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, DDIG said:

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. 

 

11 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

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. 

These are good responses that I didn't think about much before, thank you. To be clear, I'm obviously very excited about this development and the implications it has on Nashville's future, I just wanted to voice some concerns with tax breaks that I think are reasonable. In the end, I do think that the trade-off will be worth it.

Edited by henburg
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.