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

[KJHburg]

after a 6 hour meeting and police arresting one person Arlington County VA voted for its Amazon incentives (the state already had) so it is a done deal in Northern VA with Amazon.  But it sounds like quite the circus today! 

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2019/03/16/it-was-long-it-was-disruptive-but-arlington-just.html?ana=e_wash_bn_breakingnews&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVdZeVlqTmpZbUZoWXpjNCIsInQiOiJKcWNnRkJ1T2NUdDF5bkNSclpqNndSQm8zakY3MG5LdE5IV0RcL3pWR3FCWUlyRXlYdThSVjgwM2VDWlFPTkY0K3Y0OG5OMm5HbDBRNTAzc1NpRmtUcjN6Q3NjQmxua0dFbXdXNlBPakN6ejRUeUs2eFVNR0hwSkNPYUpXOVwvTGFKIn0%3D

[Mr_Bond]

I don't get it.  All this hullabaloo is about math?  "Amazon didn't give us enough information to confirm their salary calculations so the deal is OFF!"  Amazon is bringing us an amazing deal, whether the average (not median) salary is $150,000 or something slightly under it.  Take the deal, Nashville!

[Craiger]

18 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

I don't get it.  All this hullabaloo is about math?  "Amazon didn't give us enough information to confirm their salary calculations so the deal is OFF!"  Amazon is bringing us an amazing deal, whether the average (not median) salary is $150,000 or something slightly under it.  Take the deal, Nashville!

Not speaking for anyone else on here, but as one of those complaining about math, I never said the deal should be off. There are shades between black and white. Median is the better statistic here and mean is obviously used to boost the figures a bit. I’m overall fine with the deal Amazon received from the city and state. 

[titanhog]

1 hour ago, Mr_Bond said:

I don't get it.  All this hullabaloo is about math?  "Amazon didn't give us enough information to confirm their salary calculations so the deal is OFF!"  Amazon is bringing us an amazing deal, whether the average (not median) salary is $150,000 or something slightly under it.  Take the deal, Nashville!

The key for Amazon and metro is to be transparent with the public.  Don't come in saying "$150k average"  and make it sound like there will be 5000 jobs at $150k...which is kinda what it sounds like when you first hear it.  It's much better to lay it all out there...which I think is slowly starting to come out.  If you come in saying there will be X number of $68k jobs on up and in the end, it will average $150k overall....great.  Just say that up front so the public is totally aware of what they are paying for.  All of us on here are on board with metro paying $500 / job...as it makes sense.  Just be up front...or you'll make the same mistake the city made when trying to pass the transit plan.  When the truth of the plan came out...and many realized many of the claims of what they were getting was off...it cooked their goose.

[KJHburg]

This same sort of issue was recently discussed in Charlotte.  When Honeywell announced they were moving their corporate headquarters to Charlotte with  750 jobs the average salary was mentioned.  It was reported  at  $348,000 and that is the  average salary but that was skewed way up due to top execs making the big bucks but the median was already $85.000 still good.  The point is sometimes people in the local govt or economic development forget the differences between these 2 words.  https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article222572385.html

One thing I hope corporations have learned since this Amazon HQ2 search is to go back to the old way of stealth searches not a big public look at me type search. Gain approval behind the scenes then announce.    If Amazon is paying an average of 150,000 in Nashville that means many jobs will pay much less than that and a proportion will pay a lot more than 150K. 

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

This same sort of issue was recently discussed in Charlotte.  When Honeywell announced they were moving their corporate headquarters to Charlotte with  750 jobs the average salary was mentioned.  It was reported  at  $348,000 and that is the  average salary but that was skewed way up due to top execs making the big bucks but the median was already $85.000 still good.  The point is sometimes people in the local govt or economic development forget the differences between these 2 words.  https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article222572385.html

One thing I hope corporations have learned since this Amazon HQ2 search is to go back to the old way of stealth searches not a big public look at me type search. Gain approval behind the scenes then announce.    If Amazon is paying an average of 150,000 in Nashville that means many jobs will pay much less than that and a proportion will pay a lot more than 150K. 

The biggest problem is the heightened political movement going on that is not only questioning government "handouts" to corporations...but the demand that it stops.  Just like in NY, people don't really understand that most of these "handouts" are just tax abatements...not actual money passing hands.  Some of the people in NY were saying that if they could stop Amazon, they could then spend that money on something else...but...there IS no money unless Amazon comes.  Government just has to get smarter on how they play this game because perception is what normally kills these deals...not reality.

[Mr_Bond]

23 hours ago, KJHburg said:

This same sort of issue was recently discussed in Charlotte.  When Honeywell announced they were moving their corporate headquarters to Charlotte with  750 jobs the average salary was mentioned.  It was reported  at  $348,000 and that is the  average salary but that was skewed way up due to top execs making the big bucks but the median was already $85.000 still good.  The point is sometimes people in the local govt or economic development forget the differences between these 2 words.  https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article222572385.html

Was the the big corporate announcement someone posted about on UP a couple of weeks ago?

[smeagolsfree]

Honeywell may have been the company he was trying to think of.

[titanhog]

Will be interesting to see forthcoming Amazon and A/B will be.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/03/18/amazon-alliancebernstein-nashville-incentive-applications/3179844002/

[KJHburg]

8 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Honeywell may have been the company he was trying to think of.

No this was announced in December of last year.  

10 hours ago, Mr_Bond said:

Was the the big corporate announcement someone posted about on UP a couple of weeks ago?

Nope.  

[smeagolsfree]

Well that was not it then.  Hopefully we will know soon.

[nashvylle]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

No this was announced in December of last year.  

Nope.  

can you reveal what it is? Congrats! 

[markhollin]

Amazon's ripple effects on the Nashville tech scene.

The e-commerce and tech giant has given itself seven years to keep its 5,000-job promise. Of that number, “only” somewhere between 1,000 and 1,750 are expected to be pure IT jobs; the others will be operations and administrative positions that have to be part of a presence as prominent as Amazon will have in Nashville Yards. Company officials are counting on hiring between 400 and 600 people in their first year here.

Put simply: The majority of those jobs will not come from the Nashville area. Amazon has the appeal and clout to recruit from anywhere in the world and Nashville’s ascent into the national and global consciousness is helping broaden the already-big talent pool available to its recruiters.

“In sitting down with us, Amazon’s people have said they don’t want to wreak havoc on the existing market,” says Greater Nashville Technology Council CEO Brian Moyer, who is ballparking that only about a fifth of Amazon’s future workforce is already in Middle Tennessee. “They want to be part of the solution.”

More behind The Nashville Post Magazine paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/nashville-post-magazine/article/21060144/amazons-ripple-effects

[titanhog]

^^Will this be seen as good or bad news by Nashvillians? (the 1/5th of workers will be current metro-area residents)

[KJHburg]

3 hours ago, nashvylle said:

can you reveal what it is? Congrats! 

We dont know yet LOL.  People are pretty tight lipped in NC and our biggest job announcement 2 years ago of Allstate and its 2250 jobs was announced one day completely out of the blue no one had an inkling about it.  Lose lips sink ships.  

[PaulChinetti]

I would think positive by businesses in Nashville as they won't have to compete with Amazon for their own employees as hard. 

[nashvylle]

1 minute ago, PaulChinetti said:

I would think positive by businesses in Nashville as they won't have to compete with Amazon for their own employees as hard. 

Yes, but I predict negatively by StandUp Nashville ===> new people coming in to kick us out. 

[PaulChinetti]

47 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

Yes, but I predict negatively by StandUp Nashville ===> new people coming in to kick us out. 

I didn't know much/anything about StandUp Nashville before to the MLS to the Fairgrounds deal. But they were even keeled and got some decent concessions that will benefit the neighborhood which is their goal. So I'll just wait and see what comes from their efforts, I've been impressed so far. 

[DDIG]

4 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

I didn't know much/anything about StandUp Nashville before to the MLS to the Fairgrounds deal. But they were even keeled and got some decent concessions that will benefit the neighborhood which is their goal. So I'll just wait and see what comes from their efforts, I've been impressed so far. 

I thought they were reasonable during that issue but they've upped the rhetoric to a pretty stupid level regarding the Amazon thing.

[Mr_Bond]

1 hour ago, nashvylle said:

Yes, but I predict negatively by StandUp Nashville

Given their recent rhetoric about Amazon, they could take almost any news as bad news.

[WebberThomas4]

Anyone else watching the council meeting on the public access channel regarding the Amazon incentives?

Edit: it passes 30-3 with 2 amendments!

Edited March 20, 2019 by WebberThomas4

[Craiger]

18 minutes ago, WebberThomas4 said:

Anyone else watching the council meeting on the public access channel regarding the Amazon incentives?

Edit: it passes 30-3 with 2 amendments!

Was watching as well. I liked what Cooper had to say. Appreciate the amendments also. The incentive is capped at 17.5 million and they are asking MCC to pay since sales tax around the Amazon building will go to MCC. 

[FromParkAveToTN]

Ugh!!! Was hoping it would be voted down. Wouldn't they be happier in Atlanta?

[Binbin98]

So this is a go then?

Nashville grows again, this time by a lot lmao.

[smeagolsfree]

One thing Bret told us at the last meet was that this incentive package is the same incentive package that goes to any company bringing jobs to Metro. We do have a few council members that try and score points with the public by putting on a big show. I will not mention any names but I think we can pick the 2 or 3 out that for whatever reason think they have a political future for higher office . 

The TV stations  do a very very poor job at explaining these things and do a really good job at stirring the pot and starting a controversy that is many times not there.

The print media does a much better job getting the point across for sure and that goes for the TN, NBJ, and the Post.