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4 minutes ago, kermit said:

Exactly, it looks like Southend will look in 10 (?) years. Like I said, further along....

Well we have to disagree on that.  I believe more midrises will be built in Southend but there will be still places like Design Center and other 1-2 story renovated warehouses around. 10 plus years from now.  Uptown has so much room for high rises. 

Crystal City was developed by one developer Charles E Smith and it was built as a very dense office district with a little bit of retail and some residential.  My dad  worked there.

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18 hours ago, kermit said:
  • Former industrial districts, close to CBDs were the winners. Neither site has good highway access and both are a PITA to access from the burbs. The lesson for Charlotte: Hurry up with the airport line and high capacity transit up Graham / Statesville. Suburban office parks (e.g. the River District) are going to face an uphill battle attracting modern tenants, so building infrastructure there seems counter-productive. Getting suburban residents into the city (without cars) also appears to be a useful investment (commuter rail)

Expanding on that, both Crystal City and Long Island City (in addition to sounding like comic book settings), have extremely close access to major airports. They might as well build their HQ on top of Reagan's terminal, and Long Island City is only 15-20 minutes from LGA. 

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6 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

Expanding on that, both Crystal City and Long Island City (in addition to sounding like comic book settings), have extremely close access to major airports. They might as well build their HQ on top of Reagan's terminal, and Long Island City is only 15-20 minutes from LGA. 

you spelled that wrong, LGA is spelled "WORSTAIRPORTIMAGINABLE" 

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2 minutes ago, DanRNC said:

Not for long (well at least 2020).

I cannot even imagine what Civil Engineers are coping with right now.  Its insanity what they are building weaving through the road infrastructure.

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4 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I noticed, particularly in Raleigh circles (I follow NC topics more), they're going through a period we went through.

 

Wellll, we didn't really want it. Wellll, home prices would've been horrible. Welllll, it's spooking other jobs who may want to come here. Before when it looked as if Raleigh (And Charlotte) had decent shots, people were so excited Amazon was going to massively transform an area. Amazon wanted a place where they could create their mark. Mass transit systems were going to be built, entire new areas were going to be built. etc. Now that it looks as if Crystal City will get some of it, all of a sudden Crystal City is some sterile place, far flung exurb.

Crystal City, IMO, is a very exciting area. 2 Metro lines where you are a stop from a great mall, a couple stops from DC L'Enfant. The Yellow Line and Blue line can funnel in the entire metro system effectively Whether coming from Whiele or Vienna or any other line. The airport is literally right there.  Clarendon, Alexandria, DC all places people want to be. It is a place with lots of potential and I'm kind of surprised at the flack Crystal City is getting when people were wetting their panties over the Dix park area in Raleigh, etc.

CC1.jpg

 

I think back and think of the couple CLT posters who blew up the boards with Amazon rumors about CLT. And those were the same posters who completely played it down like they didn't want it in CLT. lolz.

This x 1,000,000. It's definitely post-hoc rationalization. Don't kid yourself, if you had HQ2 coming, you would have taken it 100 / 100 times.

Crystal City might suck today, but JBG bought it to transform it. Given all that's going on in Arlington and continued progress in Pentagon City, it's very conceivable that this will be cool in a decade or so once HQ2 is built out.

 

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9 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

you spelled that wrong, LGA is spelled "WORSTAIRPORTIMAGINABLE" 

LGA, which is the City's No. 3, airport is being totally rebuilt.  No US city comes remotely close to NY in terms of air service.  At JFK, one sees scores of foreign carriers that serve only the biggest cities like NY, LA, and London.   For that matter, there are basically flights every hour to London between JFK and EWR.  NY's incomparable air service was clearly one of many factors behind HQ2.

Edited by SydneyCarton
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At 25,000, if it gets to that level, would be around as big as BofA in CLT. I actually think BofA is just below 20,000 and Wells is just above 20,000. Someone can check the numbers. 

It would really be one of the largest employers in any city outside of Government. 

So it’s still a big deal 

Edited by AirNostrumMAD
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11 hours ago, Dale said:

Thanks to Libertarian on SSP, it was never about a second headquarters ...

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/richard-florida-splitting-amazon-hq2-means-cities-never-second-headquarters/

Interesting definition of “urban” from the guy quoted in the article.  He seems to be equating “urban” with “prestigious” and sort of poops on queens and crystal city. 

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Looks like from this map much of Long Island City is an opportunity zone which means the HQ would not have to pay property taxes.   Amazon is very cheap from what everyone has said and this could be the cheapest way into an expensive market.    I do think Amazon collected all that data from cities around the country to use for their own future needs in terms of warehouse etc.  

https://archpaper.com/2018/11/amazon-hq2-split-queens-arlington-but-can-they-handle-it/?trk_msg=DB8VNCM4A97KL784QINES94APC&trk_contact=UF81KL4U4UJGOP9VSGEU1UFLBG&trk_sid=AJHLJ6VFS96IMUEST3HS9M2M70&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Amazon+to+split+HQ2+between+New+York+and+Virginia%2c+but+can+they+handle+it%3f&utm_campaign=City+Terrain%3a+Amazon+chooses+two+locations+for+its+new+headquarters%2c+a+Gehry+project+moves+forward%2c+

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2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Looks like from this map much of Long Island City is an opportunity zone which means the HQ would not have to pay property taxes.  

That is an interesting find, but lets be realistic. Amazon wasn't going to pay any property taxes wherever it landed, their forgiveness is generally the first thing to get put into any local incentives bucket.  Incentives were going to make any site relatively cheap for Amazon, the significant result of their decision is that that they choose two sites that are going to be super expensive for their employees.

 

40 minutes ago, Dale said:

... the obvious irony is that a Charlotte campus would likely have featured better transit connections.

Yea, but not really. There are two subway routes into LIC, three ferries (with room for more) and a massive terminal for the Long Island Rail Road. (plus some looming improvements in the form of a new tunnel from LIC to Grand Central for the LIRR)

Edited by kermit
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The assumption here is that Amazon employees will want to venture into Manhattan on occasion. Where else in NYC would appeal ?

Accordingly, whether Amazon landed in Uptown or South End, employees could almost walk to one or the other.  Or they could take a train! We’ve got a freaking train! 

 

 

Edited by Dale
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1 hour ago, Dale said:

 Or they could take a train! We’ve got a freaking train! 

 

 

Honesty this is how I imagine Charlotte brands itself in presentations to companies like Amazon or others looking to move here

 

CLT: We have a train

AMZ: What?

CLT: We have a train

AMZ: Ok a lot of cities have trains, what else you got, education? taxes? culture?

CLT: I dont think you get it, we have a train *winks*

AMZ: Ok.... ummmm..... we'll get back to you *crosses Charlotte off list*

Edited by Trickbot
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21 minutes ago, Trickbot said:

Honesty this is how I imagine Charlotte brands itself in presentations to companies like Amazon or others looking to move here

 

CLT: We have a train

AMZ: What?

CLT: We have a train

AMZ: Ok a lot of cities have trains, what else you got, education? taxes? culture?

CLT: I dont think you get it, we have a train *winks*

AMZ: Ok.... ummmm..... we'll get back to you *crosses Charlotte off list*

The sad part is that this is not too far off from what the old econ development folks (3 months ago) used to do. They have 3 of the top 5 worst pitches I've ever seen.

 

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Since their top 3 choices have 6 MILLION people plus I don't think we had a chance anyway.  DC metro is the smallest at 6.2 M Dallas Ft Worth 7.3 M  and of course NYC metro at 20.3 M     Charlotte metro 2.5 Million all 2017 estimates.   It is a population and market size decision.  

Many financial firms based in NYC with tech departments may find it easier to move those type operations out of NYC in order to compete for talent like TIAA did many years ago to Charlotte.   Maybe firms like AIG etc. 

 

Edited by KJHburg
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Charlotte is doing fine as is.   I think that managed growth is the way to go.  Atlanta grew so fast that it's actually becoming undesirable for relocations at this point.  Who wants to deal with all of that traffic?  

I'd like to see underdeveloped parts of Charlotte, like the west and east sides and the area around Pineville develop more.   

I don't think that Charlotte was ready to absorb an employer with 25,000 jobs like Amazon, nor do I think that would have been good for the city.

Charlotte is doing very well at not repeating Atlanta's mistakes.

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