Amazon HQ2

[kermit]

I don't believe we have see these documents before. I stumbled across portions of Charlotte's RFP for Amazon HQ2. The only portion I have glanced at so far is the section titled Logistics where they present the transit options available to the 25 (!) sites proposed to Amazon. My skim reinforces that those who put the Amazon proposal together were completely tone deaf to what Amazon was pretty clear about desiring -- the majority of the sites presented had little or no transit access and no plans were presented (in this chapter anyway) of how that could be remediated. Basically these guys were presenting amazon with sites that would have been great spots for a textile mill back in 1952. Presenting 25 possible sites was also appears (to me) to be a super dumb move -- Amazon wanted to hear about the best possible site per their stated requirements, they didn't want to wade through 25 different possibilities. [none of this is intended to suggest that we had a chance, even with a better proposal]

https://www.wccbcharlotte.com/content/uploads/2018/12/Site-Proposal.pdf

Here is proposed site #2 from the document:

[CLT2014]

We presented a field outside Shelby, North Carolina next to a paper corporation's headquarters and a Walmart distribution center??? Oh my - Amazon must have just thrown it in the trash. Transit would have been the least of Amazon's problems.... only 18.8% of Cleveland County has a Bachelor degree or higher, which is barely higher than the 15% that never graduated high school. 

The mass transit available per CATS: "The Transportation Administration of Cleveland County provides services for the elderly and disabled to this location." 

Edited January 6, 2022 by CLT2014

[rancenc]

At the end of the day, the whole Amazon HQ2 process was essentially a sham.  The leadership knew exactly the locations they were aiming for and of course a big ole proverbial cream pie was thrown into their face in NYC by none other, Ms Progressive herself, AOC!!   Of course that site never materialize!  Maybe the Charlotte recruiters had that same intuition as well  and were not going to waste their time!

[KJHburg]

5 hours ago, rancenc said:

At the end of the day, the whole Amazon HQ2 process was essentially a sham.  The leadership knew exactly the locations they were aiming for and of course a big ole proverbial cream pie was thrown into their face in NYC by none other, Ms Progressive herself, AOC!!   Of course that site never materialize!  Maybe the Charlotte recruiters had that same intuition as well  and were not going to waste their time!

I agree.  I believe the whole Amazon HQ2 search was a market research project from Amazon to learn about communities and so forth and they have open not only distribution centers in just about every city that applied but sometimes offices like a fairly big one in Austin one in Atlanta etc.   I don't think this crazed 50 state search will ever happen again with a company I said at the time no company does that or not on that scale.  And yes they wanted to go to NYC and DC where Mr Bezos owns the the Post.   They even open a larger office in NYC too just not in Queens but in Manhattan.    Do you hear Micron even confirming they are looking at NC or Texas right now?  they wont even confirm it but they are seriously considering both. 

[CM2424]

8 hours ago, kermit said:

I don't believe we have see these documents before. I stumbled across portions of Charlotte's RFP for Amazon HQ2. The only portion I have glanced at so far is the section titled Logistics where they present the transit options available to the 25 (!) sites proposed to Amazon. My skim reinforces that those who put the Amazon proposal together were completely tone deaf to what Amazon was pretty clear about desiring -- the majority of the sites presented had little or no transit access and no plans were presented (in this chapter anyway) of how that could be remediated. Basically these guys were presenting amazon with sites that would have been great spots for a textile mill back in 1952. Presenting 25 possible sites was also appears (to me) to be a super dumb move -- Amazon wanted to hear about the best possible site per their stated requirements, they didn't want to wade through 25 different possibilities. [none of this is intended to suggest that we had a chance, even with a better proposal]

https://www.wccbcharlotte.com/content/uploads/2018/12/Site-Proposal.pdf

Here is proposed site #2 from the document:

Gosh that is bad.  Almost as cringeworthy as that  video they put together.  Ugh.   

[DownEast]

7 hours ago, rancenc said:

At the end of the day, the whole Amazon HQ2 process was essentially a sham.  The leadership knew exactly the locations they were aiming for and of course a big ole proverbial cream pie was thrown into their face in NYC by none other, Ms Progressive herself, AOC!!   Of course that site never materialize!  Maybe the Charlotte recruiters had that same intuition as well  and were not going to waste their time!

Not a chance. The Charlotte boosters were all in. They were obviously inept at putting together a salient proposal as evidenced by site #2.  #charlotteisprime. #gag

[Blue_Devil]

10 hours ago, DownEast said:

Not a chance. The Charlotte boosters were all in. They were obviously inept at putting together a salient proposal as evidenced by site #2.  #charlotteisprime. #gag

I mean, I agree for the most part, except for Nashville. Wasn't that 5000 job site added because of their HQ2 presentation. Amazon originally had no intention of Nashville?

[DownEast]

47 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

I mean, I agree for the most part, except for Nashville. Wasn't that 5000 job site added because of their HQ2 presentation. Amazon originally had no intention of Nashville?

Not sure what you're agreeing to. "Not a chance" was referring to the notion that the Charlotte contingent didn't try hard enough because they knew Hq2 was a sham as mentioned by RanceNC. Charlotte def had as good a chance as Nashville. Our little league proposal is what dis us in. 

[JRCLT]

I don't believe we have see these documents before. I stumbled across portions of Charlotte's RFP for Amazon HQ2. The only portion I have glanced at so far is the section titled Logistics where they present the transit options available to the 25 (!) sites proposed to Amazon. My skim reinforces that those who put the Amazon proposal together were completely tone deaf to what Amazon was pretty clear about desiring -- the majority of the sites presented had little or no transit access and no plans were presented (in this chapter anyway) of how that could be remediated. Basically these guys were presenting amazon with sites that would have been great spots for a textile mill back in 1952. Presenting 25 possible sites was also appears (to me) to be a super dumb move -- Amazon wanted to hear about the best possible site per their stated requirements, they didn't want to wade through 25 different possibilities. [none of this is intended to suggest that we had a chance, even with a better proposal]
https://www.wccbcharlotte.com/content/uploads/2018/12/Site-Proposal.pdf
Here is proposed site #2 from the document:
http://content.invisioncic.com/x329420/monthly_2022_01/image.png.8a88b61043a328f64f2af672ca1dc371.png

When they heard Amazon HQ2 they heard another…”ANOTHER DISTRIBUTION CENTER!!” Instead of an actual HQ of a tech company.

[Blue_Devil]

9 hours ago, DownEast said:

Not sure what you're agreeing to. "Not a chance" was referring to the notion that the Charlotte contingent didn't try hard enough because they knew Hq2 was a sham as mentioned by RanceNC. Charlotte def had as good a chance as Nashville. Our little league proposal is what dis us in. 

It was the post you quote, so that was confusing. What I am agreeing to is it being a sham for the most part, except for the Nashville selection, which actually seems to have come from the HQ2 proposals that were submitted by Nashville. So the point I am making is, even if we knew it was going to be a sham, we still should have tried hard. 

[DownEast]

39 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

It was the post you quote, so that was confusing. What I am agreeing to is it being a sham for the most part, except for the Nashville selection, which actually seems to have come from the HQ2 proposals that were submitted by Nashville. So the point I am making is, even if we knew it was going to be a sham, we still should have tried hard. 

We should have absolutely tried harder. I just thought it was silly to think our recruitment team thought for a second that HQ2 was a sham and played a modest hand. Why bother?

[KJHburg]

News from the Triangle....

Well after Amazon rejected the Triangle as HQ2 (as well as Charlotte region)  they seem to be doing some hiring locally in the Triangle  and I dont mean for their warehouses.   Sounds like Amazon will open a tech office in Raleigh Durham hmmm after Google, Apple and multiple other tech companies have large and small offices here.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/01/11/amazon-boosts-hiring-for-local-tech-jobs.html

""As Triangle employers battle to fill open tech positions, a mega company is stepping up its hiring game in the region. E-commerce giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has put out dozens of postings for “on-site” developer jobs in the region.  About 50 open positions have been listed in the past two weeks alone for Raleigh and Durham, a review of job postings shows. They include cloud infrastructure architects and database consultants in Durham and customer solutions managers in Raleigh.  Amazon has several locations in the region – including a massive distribution warehouse operation in Garner. But much of its on-site presence – at least so far – has been logistics-related.  One of Amazon’s new job postings says the company is “in [the] process of locating office space in the area of North Carolina, Research Triangle Park.”""

[gsutton5]

On 1/13/2022 at 2:55 PM, KJHburg said:

News from the Triangle....

Well after Amazon rejected the Triangle as HQ2 (as well as Charlotte region)  they seem to be doing some hiring locally in the Triangle  and I dont mean for their warehouses.   Sounds like Amazon will open a tech office in Raleigh Durham hmmm after Google, Apple and multiple other tech companies have large and small offices here.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/01/11/amazon-boosts-hiring-for-local-tech-jobs.html

""As Triangle employers battle to fill open tech positions, a mega company is stepping up its hiring game in the region. E-commerce giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has put out dozens of postings for “on-site” developer jobs in the region.  About 50 open positions have been listed in the past two weeks alone for Raleigh and Durham, a review of job postings shows. They include cloud infrastructure architects and database consultants in Durham and customer solutions managers in Raleigh.  Amazon has several locations in the region – including a massive distribution warehouse operation in Garner. But much of its on-site presence – at least so far – has been logistics-related.  One of Amazon’s new job postings says the company is “in [the] process of locating office space in the area of North Carolina, Research Triangle Park.”""

Shame… an Amazon tower would look awesome in uptown 

[Vitamin_N]

I guess you should be careful what you wish for?

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-03/amazon-hq2-pauses-construction-amid-layoffs-remote-work

Amazon Pauses Construction on Second Headquarters in Virginia as It Cuts Jobs

Delay affects three office towers, ‘Helix’ conference center

Move coincides with biggest job cuts ever, remote work reality

 

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, Vitamin_N said:

I guess you should be careful what you wish for?

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-03/amazon-hq2-pauses-construction-amid-layoffs-remote-work

Amazon Pauses Construction on Second Headquarters in Virginia as It Cuts Jobs

Delay affects three office towers, ‘Helix’ conference center

Move coincides with biggest job cuts ever, remote work reality

 

they are delaying their 2nd building in Nashville too I think. 

[15895]

4 hours ago, Vitamin_N said:

I guess you should be careful what you wish for?

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-03/amazon-hq2-pauses-construction-amid-layoffs-remote-work

Amazon Pauses Construction on Second Headquarters in Virginia as It Cuts Jobs

Delay affects three office towers, ‘Helix’ conference center

Move coincides with biggest job cuts ever, remote work reality

 

8,000 HQ2 related jobs created in the area (ahead of the 7,650 it had expected by 2023), the 2nd largest sub market of office space delivered  in the country in 1Q23, hundreds of millions going towards TOD affordable housing funds from Amazon, the $1 Billion dollar VT Innovation campus & revitalization U/C and all the buildings & renovations that already came as a result of Amazon & even thrusted Crystal City to officially become the sub market with the most Multifamily units U/C in the DC region (which is more than SouthEnd) And they haven’t even got incentives out of Arlington yet… $0 in incentives…

 

Charlotte hasn’t gotten anything as significant since…? 

8,000 HQ2 jobs created - ignoring other jobs created as a result - which is what. More than double of the Truist headcount in the greater Charlotte region including bank branches. 

Honeywell brought 500 jobs for $42 Million in incentives from NC. 8000 HQ2 jobs for $0 in incentives paid out. 

I don’t see how that’s “being careful what you wish for.” 

****I’m just being a grumpy triggered person from holdover annoyance from another thread, to be completely honest in full transparency.*****

A delay in the next phase of office construction is “disappointing” - but it has been transformational & huge for the region so. But I mean. A pandemic happened. It is what it is. It’s not really surprising. 

Office development’s around the country may be delayed like the one below in Charlotte. Which I don’t think is delayed but people have mentioned the possibility in another thread. Who knows. 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[Madison Parkitect]

Found Bezos' burner account.

[15895]

11 hours ago, Madison Parkitect said:

Found Bezos' burner account.

You guys are total masters at gas lighting. I guess it’s annoying because I don’t get what the point is. So you’re glad Charlotte wasn’t even considered for HQ2 because 8,000 high paying tech jobs is a bad thing? 

-    The Phase I is just wrapping up construction & Phase 2 is “delayed.” 8,000 people hired (which is ahead of their hiring schedule). 8,000 high paying jobs is a giant win for Econ. Dev. 

-  Billions in other projects has came as a result. Such as the $1 Billion VT Tech/Innovation campus.

Even if we don’t get anymore jobs than that. And $0 in incentives paid out. That’s a win. Whether it could be a bigger win or not. 
 

But hey. Arlington got 8,000 jobs from HQ2, tons of other development, Boeing relocated their HQ there this year, Raytheon moved their HQ there this year, etc. So. That area is not missing out, so. At least our region is happy about winning HQ2 & y’all are happy to not have been considered for HQ2. So I guess everyone can just be happy then. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT2014]

^Just being honest, but I think people are tired of hearing about Washington DC a lot on a Charlotte board. Tons of threads are now having comparisons to DC or comments on what DC is doing... 

Edited March 7, 2023 by CLT2014

[15895]

10 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

^Just being honest, but I think people are tired of hearing about Washington DC a lot on a Charlotte board. Tons of threads are now having comparisons to DC or comments on what DC is doing... 

More gaslighting. 

I mostly see comments on Portland and San Francisco, personally, on the Charlotte board. That gets old to me. 

But to that I say, don’t bring up DC if you don’t want to hear about it. Don’t bring up the Walmart closing on H St, don’t bring up DC’s metro, don’t bring up DC sprawling just as much as Charlotte, don’t bring up crime in DC, etc. Applicable to San Francisco, Portland & New York. And Raleigh & Atlanta too (when it comes to their urbanity relative to Charlotte.). The stuff some of you say  about Raleigh are just ridiculous sometimes. 

Sometimes if I mention anything about Lynx, people will randomly bring up some out-of-context fact about DC Metro. If I mention certain things about Charlotte & it gets peoples panties in a bunch, people will do “what about DC” etc as a dig. That gets old to me & I can’t stand when people do that in response to stuff I post. And believe me. I walk on egg shells to not offend anyone on certain things. I haven’t mentioned Duke Energy Tower being so sterile at the bottom and I feel strongly about it but I haven’t posted it… or certain other things I’m like “let me not say anything remotely critical or what I wish, or how I wish things more looked like Ally Center” etc because someone somehow will be offended, mention DC and I dont feel like hearing that. 

In a report that states Charlotte has one of the strongest walkable urban cores, and that it mostly skewed to office and I agreed with another poster a post-pandemic world, Charlotte should be more balanced between residential and office density like SouthEnd, one of you was all offended and went off about DC being just sprawling, blah blah blah. 
 

So, if people don’t like it, then don’t bring it up. You can’t get mad when you bring up HQ2 as if it was a failure and someone points out it was a great economic development. I would love for certain people not to bring up DC all the time in responses to post I make where I don’t even mention or hint at it. 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[JRCLT]

More gaslighting. 
I mostly see comments on Portland and San Francisco, personally, on the Charlotte board. That gets old to me. 
But to that I say, don’t bring up DC if you don’t want to hear about it. Don’t bring up the Walmart closing on H St, don’t bring up DC’s metro, don’t bring up DC sprawling just as much as Charlotte, don’t bring up crime in DC, etc. Applicable to San Francisco, Portland & New York. And Raleigh & Atlanta too (when it comes to their urbanity relative to Charlotte.). The stuff some of you say  about Raleigh are just ridiculous sometimes. 
Sometimes if I mention anything about Lynx, people will randomly bring up some out-of-context fact about DC Metro. If I mention certain things about Charlotte & it gets peoples panties in a bunch, people will do “what about DC” etc as a dig. That gets old to me & I can’t stand when people do that in response to stuff I post. And believe me. I walk on egg shells to not offend anyone on certain things. I haven’t mentioned Duke Energy Tower being so sterile at the bottom and I feel strongly about it but I haven’t posted it… or certain other things I’m like “let me not say anything remotely critical or what I wish, or how I wish things more looked like Ally Center” etc because someone somehow will be offended, mention DC and I dont feel like hearing that. 
In a report that states Charlotte has one of the strongest walkable urban cores, and that it mostly skewed to office and I agreed with another poster a post-pandemic world, Charlotte should be more balanced between residential and office density like SouthEnd, one of you was all offended and went off about DC being just sprawling, blah blah blah. 
 
So, if people don’t like it, then don’t bring it up. You can’t get mad when you bring up HQ2 as if it was a failure and someone points out it was a great economic development. I would love for certain people not to bring up DC all the time in responses to post I make where I don’t even mention or hint at it. 
 
 

This is no Centene. Lol. You’re absolutely right.