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


ZestyEd

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1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Here is Amazon's new 600 footer in downtown Bellevue and it is nice.

https://vulcanrealestate.com/Properties/555108th.aspx

I would say that as Amazon's leases come up in Seattle they will be moving out to Bellevue and other cities like Nashville.   They are far to big a corporation to have so many employees in one area and I think they know that now.  

Yeah...just like with Nashville, you can see how one stupid mayoral election can change the city's business climate towards developers overnight...and could last, at least, until the next election.

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seems to be trouble in Seattle with Amazon according to this article.  Not only are they moving thousands of jobs to Bellevue though not mentioned Nashville stands to gain with this dispersion of employees out of Seattle.
From Puget Sound Biz Journal:
"""Amazon is gauging how employees feel about moving away from the company's Seattle campus, largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic and Seattle’s new payroll tax.
Amazon sent an email to workers asking if they’d be willing to work in Seattle’s suburbs and outlying areas, including Redmond and Tacoma. The story was reported by Bloomberg on Friday.
The company has been expanding beyond Seattle for years, announcing in 2018 a second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. 
In February, Amazon announced that it plans to bring an additional 15,000 jobs to Bellevue. Many of the jobs, which Amazon said will come to Bellevue in “the next few years,” will be housed in a 600-foot-tall office tower planned for 110th Avenue in the city’s downtown.
The new jobs would increase the number of Amazon employees in Bellevue by more than seven times. 
In addition, Amazon Web Services said in June that it has secured 111,000 square feet of office space in the old Macy's building at Redmond Town Center. The space will hold up to 600 employees, most of them part of tech and engineering teams supporting AWS database services. The office is expected to open in 2021.
Amazon employs about 50,000 workers at its Seattle headquarters, which includes more than 40 buildings — including the company’s landmark, greenhouse-like glass Spheres — sprawling across several blocks.
Amazon’s decision to keep workers at home or to move them to outlying suburbs and neighboring cities could mean dire consequences for downtown Seattle, particularly for small businesses around Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. 
Already, two South Lake Union restaurants, Trattoria Cuoco and Brave Horse Tavern, both of which leased space on Amazon’s campus, have permanently closed this summer. 
The Downtown Seattle Association said that before the pandemic, nearly 330,000 people worked downtown every day. Even a 10% or 20% reduction in those numbers is going to hurt business owners who rely on a bustling downtown, the DSA said. 
Amazon has had a rocky relationship with the Seattle City Council since at least 2018 when councilwoman Kshama Sawant proposed a “head tax” on large salaries in the city to pay for homelessness and affordable housing. Sawant called it the “Amazon Tax.”
Later that year, the council initially passed a tax of $275 per employee on Seattle businesses pulling in more than $20 million a year. Amazon halted construction on one of its downtown Seattle towers as debate over that tax intensified, and a backlash against the levy quickly gained strength. The council ultimately backpedaled and voted to repeal the tax in June 2018, less than a month after it was passed.
Amazon proceeded to pour a record $1.5 million into Seattle City Council races in support of what it saw as pro-business candidates. It also chose to expand to areas outside of Seattle.
Sawant revived her “Tax Amazon” campaign earlier this year and proposals to tax the payrolls of large companies to pay for affordable and green housing were floated in both the city council and in Olympia. 
Last month, the Seattle City Council approved a new tax on the city’s largest employers, levying the payrolls of employees making at least $150,000 a year. It’s estimated the tax will raise more than $200 each year.
Council President M. Lorena González and Conuncilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who was the prime sponsor of the payroll tax, were not immediately available to comment, a council spokesperson said.""
 
 
This is very disturbing news on the whole though... IMO.

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I’m not against taxes like this at all. Cities shouldn’t let corporations bully them around. Corporations shouldn’t let cities bully them around. So go ahead and leave Amazon, Seattle will hurt or prosper and another city will prosper until they too decide they’ve had enough. 
Reminds me of the episode of South Park where WalMart comes to town and takes over so they eventually destroy it, then decide to support a local store until it gets as big as WalMart then they destroy that store  as well.
There is always another company or companies. 
 
 
Amen Brother!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I only mention this because it appears all future growth of Amazon will be outside the city of Seattle and I am sure lots more will come to Nashville. 

From Seattle Biz Journal about new leases and new jobs in suburban Bellevue WA.

""On Thursday, Vulcan said Amazon has agreed to rent the 555 Tower and West Main, the new name of the development where the Bellevue Plaza shopping operated. Together the projects have 2 million square feet of office.  In February Amazon announced plans to create 15,000 jobs in Bellevue. On Friday, the company announced plans to add 10,000 more jobs in Bellevue in the next few years.   "Additionally, in the coming weeks, we will begin the process of developing the second phase of our Bellevue 600 project, Amazon Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities John Schoettler said in a blog post.   The second phase is a 27-story tower and is expected to be complete by 2025, a year after the first phase, which is a 43-story tower.  The two Vulcan leases together are the largest deal for the development company since 2007, when Amazon leased a similar amount space in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood, Vulcan Chief Real Estate Officer Ada M. Healey told the Business Journal.""

Edited by KJHburg
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Thanks for the post. I've developed the thinking during this madness in Seattle, Portland and other places, that Amazon will relocate most of their administrative business to Bellevue. My gut tells me they'll keep their titular HQ in DT Seattle. Concurrent to that (of course) is the somewhat unexpected surge AMZN has seen from the COVID shutdown.  I saw today that they'll be adding 2000 new hires to their 'underground second HQ' in NYC (but not in Queens).  I do think Nashville will benefit from this, although I can't gauge by how much (more) because of their moves out of Seattle. If anything, it may speed up their timetable for their next (third) office building in Nashville Yards. I think this may speed that up by some (?) amount of time. Where I (we) thought it would not start before 2023, I think it moves that startup closer to early 2022, or even 2021.  They've met their targets for first phase hiring with an admirable mix of local and out-of-town personnel. Having worked in a fast-growing firm, I wouldn't be surprised if they give time between each phase to 'digest' each phase. Personally, I wouldn't expect the third (tallest) tower to be ready before 2024, but this all depends on how much AMZN wants to spread its wings out of its home. Some of that will be market driven (COVID and corporate/online growth) and others will be the feelings of their local (to Seattle) management team. I'd be surprised if the core team of top executives will be willing to leave Washington. 

Edited by MLBrumby
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Exactly!  I see that as very similar to the F500 corporate HQs that moved out of NYC during the 1960s-80s to NJ/CT and suburban NYC. Plus, it puts the top executives closer to where they live and play. The latter I don't know for sure if it's the case with AMZN management, but there's already a ton of young executive talent in Bellevue. So it's a safe move for the bulk of their administrative divisions, and avoids the politics of Seattle. CAVEAT: This is ALL MY THINKING based on ONLY what you all have read/know about AMZN. 

Edited by MLBrumby
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