Amazon HQ2

[southslider]

^No rules. Just the Charlotte way!

 

[kermit]

Nobody at the partnership had the sack to tell 20 developers that their sites were crap.

[Dale]

A few months from now 19 cities will be able to berate us with, "Ha-Ha! We didn't didn't lose as badly as you did!"

[DMann]

When do we bring out the horse being beaten?

[tozmervo]

30 minutes ago, DMann said:

When do we bring out the horse being beaten?

 

[15895]

2 hours ago, DMann said:

When do we bring out the horse being beaten?

 

Hopefully once it’s lunchtime I’m Seattle, Ah(forget the following numbers) can posy a snarky meme or comment about beating a dead horse 

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

3 hours ago, DMann said:

When do we bring out the horse being beaten?

I agree, ready for it to be over too lol.  But I'm curious to see how this bid thing works (esp in our case with over 22 sites).  What was the format or layout and how many pages did it consist of?  I feel like with so many sites, our bid would basically consist of a map of CLT, a circle around the potential site, and a few bullet points attempting to highlight the area (slight exaggeration).  I also don't necessarily agree with them using the excuse of our avail tech workforce as an excuse.  Raleigh, the Triad, and other are very close driving distance (plus a lot of it would be staggered growth and influx).  I'm sure other locations are using a certain radius for their talent pool as well.  I do think we should have had a more focused bid, in terms of potential sites (5 or so)...22 may seem desperate or too vague of a bid...who knows.  Just my personal opinion as well, I think Amazon already had a "short list" well before this whole thing went public anyways...but like many have said, we'll do just fine without it...no butthurt here. 

[elrodvt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/business/economy/amazon-finalists-incentives.html

[southslider]

Charlotte blew the interview for the job. The video stressed our perceived weakness (lack of cool factor), while ignoring our biggest strength (phenomenal growth). But even worse, the bid didn’t follow the instructions provided by Amazon.

Their request said to submit "urban or suburban" sites with existing square feet or greenfield acreage meeting their needs, but also that any proposal listing multiple sites should be connected by transit. And so when you include sites, like Shelby (sorry, but the most blatant example of all sites), you clearly aren't following instructions. The cutesy, corny video just further illustrated that we weren't taking this seriously.

Interviewers don't like hearing job candidates lie about their biggest weakness (it's the tech pool, not the cool factor) or ignore their biggest strength (high growth for creation and absorption of jobs).  But employers don't even call a candidate for an interview when their application didn't follow instructions  (few sites linked by transportation).  And thus, insecure Charlotte botched her shot. 

Sure, it may have been an uphill chance, but since they never heard the unique capacity for growth or highly connected sites available here, their original perception of limited talent remained unchallenged.

We can't easily fix the lack of research institutions here. But we better learn that our regional economy thrives off an unbelievably strong core of unparalleled growth.

 

[KJHburg]

Lets all relax about this search and watch this Saturday Night Live skit about several cities presenting to Mr Bezos and Atlanta wins this skit for sure!
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/01/22/snl-sketch-mocks-atlantas-amazon-hq2-pitch-vido.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=article_du&ed=2018-01-27&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1517059428&j=79672671

[DMann]

We could have sent Patrick Cannon!

[QCxpat]

10 hours ago, elrodvt said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/business/economy/amazon-finalists-incentives.html

Quotation of the Day: Risks for Cities in Sweetening Amazon’s Pot - N.Y. Times 01/26/2018

 

"There are no incentives for those of us who are already here. Why should the richest man in the history of the world get money to open his business?”

 

Gina Schaefer, who owns a dozen hardware stores in the Washington area, faces competition from Amazon.  CreditAndrew Mangum for The New York Times

 

Jeff Bezos is now the richest person of all time. That should put an Amazon smile on his face.  The Amazon CEO's net worth reached $105.1 billion Monday, according to Bloomberg's billionaire tracker. That eclipses the record previously held by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.  Forbes, the other major tracker of the net worth of the world's richest, put Bezos' net worth at a mere $104.4 billion.

 

Links:

(1)   NY Times (01/26/2018)   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/todayspaper/quotation-of-the-day-risks-for-cities-in-sweetening-amazons-pot.html

(2)   @CNNTech (01/09/2018)  http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/09/technology/jeff-bezos-richest/index.html

[cjd5050]

I vote that this thread gets moved to the coffee house so that it can pivot from a conversation about Charlotte landing HQ2 to a conversation about tax breaks, business regulations and the politics of big vs. small business.  

It is interesting to me that somewhat similar businesses in Amazon and Wal-Mart find themselves on opposite ends in brand equity.   Somehow it's acceptable to crap on Wal-Mart for what they do to small business but it's perfectly acceptable, if not downright cool, to purchase almost everything from Amazon.   

Maybe it's the anonymity of online shopping compared to shopping in a big box?   Maybe it's that it's easier for people to have outrage to a company for employing a worker with almost no skill at a low wage rather than not even having those workers on the payroll at all?   Most interesting is that the resentment towards people of ultra-wealthy seems to be based more on their current politics than the wake of their path towards getting it.   

[KJHburg]

^^^ Speaking of Walmart they employ far more here in Charlotte than Amazon probably ever will and they leased a 107,000 sq entire office building in the office park now known as Water Ridge back in 2015 and employs 100s and 100s there no one nickels of incentives paid. It was one of the biggest new to market office leases that year. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2015/06/wal-mart-signs-12-year-lease-for-office-building.html

That being I hope Prime Air from Amazon builds up their service to CLT.   Amazon occupies 2 buildings already in west Charlotte, one in Concord and building a 1 M sq ft warehouse in Kannapolis.  When the new building is done they will have almost 2 Million sq ft in the 2 counties.  

[urbanlover568]

Charlotte did not get it because they lacked tech talent. Not because of a failed interview or because they failed to impress Amazon.  It all come down to the available workforce in the area and scalability. 

[southslider]

Don't cry over missed HQ2s. Grow the next HQ1s. Skate to where the puck will be.

[kickazzz2000]

11 hours ago, southslider said:

Don't cry over missed HQ2s. Grow the next HQ1s. Skate to where the puck will be.

FINTECH/CRYPTO

[KJHburg]

Interesting theory on where HQ2 will end up and I have said all along that Amazon had a very short list but did this nationwide charade to extract more out of their preferred location.  https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/economic-development/lois-weiss-84169?utm_source=MorningBrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180130_charlotte_morningbrief&be=kj%40charlottehomes.com

[cjd5050]

10 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Interesting theory on where HQ2 will end up and I have said all along that Amazon had a very short list but did this nationwide charade to extract more out of their preferred location.  https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/economic-development/lois-weiss-84169?utm_source=MorningBrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180130_charlotte_morningbrief&be=kj%40charlottehomes.com

Makes perfect sense.  I wonder why this wasn't published before the short list?  All of the items listed were public before that list was made.  

[J-Rob]

It seems like HQ2 might end up in Virginia, but I thought this was an interesting thought regarding Georgia:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/27/technology/amazon-hq2-atlanta/index.html

Maybe other companies considering Georgia currently will shift north a few hours to Charlotte; which would be an interesting change of events after the HB2 debacle.  With Charlotte being out of the running for HQ2 I was pretty stocked about the EY Wavespace announcement, and hope we can string together some small wins like that.  Since it seems like EY will be at RailYard, I am interested to see if the NAI Elizabeth/Midtown tower is indicative of some other relocation or expansion that hasn't been announced.

[ah59396]

11 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

It seems like HQ2 might end up in Virginia, but I thought this was an interesting thought regarding Georgia:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/27/technology/amazon-hq2-atlanta/index.html

Maybe other companies considering Georgia currently will shift north a few hours to Charlotte; which would be an interesting change of events after the HB2 debacle.  With Charlotte being out of the running for HQ2 I was pretty stocked about the EY Wavespace announcement, and hope we can string together some small wins like that.  Since it seems like EY will be at RailYard, I am interested to see if the NAI Elizabeth/Midtown tower is indicative of some other relocation or expansion that hasn't been announced.

Georgia screwed the pooch after it took a dump on Delta this week.  Why any business would want to go there now is beyond me.  They are making NC look good by comparison.

[SouthEndCLT811]

I don't put it past our general assembly making a similar stupid move if given the chance.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, J-Rob said:

It seems like HQ2 might end up in Virginia, but I thought this was an interesting thought regarding Georgia:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/27/technology/amazon-hq2-atlanta/index.html

Maybe other companies considering Georgia currently will shift north a few hours to Charlotte; which would be an interesting change of events after the HB2 debacle.  With Charlotte being out of the running for HQ2 I was pretty stocked about the EY Wavespace announcement, and hope we can string together some small wins like that.  Since it seems like EY will be at RailYard, I am interested to see if the NAI Elizabeth/Midtown tower is indicative of some other relocation or expansion that hasn't been announced.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alliancebernstein-considers-moving-some-staff-away-from-new-york-1507746821

Charlotte is up against Nashvegas and San Antonio for this. Been trying to get it some media attention lately. I think we are on the cusp of losing out, despite being the most obvious candidate for a Financial Hub.

[Third Strike]

Raleigh is still on the table, right? Would Charlotte still benefit from Amazon placing their second HQ only a couple hours away? Raleigh seems cheaper than D.C., and it still wouldn’t be too far away from DC, Charlotte, and Atlanta. 

[15895]

I say Charlotte should take a jab at ATL...

Send a note to the NFL that they should move the super bowl out of ATL and CLT would be proud to host it. Not that it’s realistic, but revenge for their shenanigans during HB2 and how they solicited the NBA for the all stars....

 

Obvioisly Vi Lyles is too classy for that, but still. I’m still bitter over the lack of support from other cities, states, HRC, etc. for Charlotte, Raleigh and the other NC cities.