Amazon's New HQ?

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SurlyLHT
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby SurlyLHT » September 7th, 2017, 7:50 am

It's been announced that Amazon is looking for a second HQ. First, does anyone think there is any chance Minneapolis will get it? Second, if you were to create the proposal for Amazon what would you propose and where should they be Downtown? (It seems to me that Wells Fargo took the best place for their future HQ in Mpls)



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Qhaberl
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby Qhaberl » September 7th, 2017, 8:14 am

What about the proposed 17 story near the vikings parking ramp. Although, bassed on the number of employies, not sure if 17 would be large enough.


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jonnyengel
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby jonnyengel » September 7th, 2017, 8:17 am

There's also that lot next to the Twins stadium, next to where Amazon already has an office. I wonder who would be responsible for creating the bid. I saw in the article that they're due next month.

fehler
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby fehler » September 7th, 2017, 8:26 am

Their Seattle campus is huge, would they be creating a second campus? Perhaps the Farmers Market area.

acs
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby acs » September 7th, 2017, 8:29 am

50,000 employees and 8M+ square feet is far larger than any single building in this state (Think 10 times the size of the WF project). It's going to have to be a multiple building complex. Really, our best site for this is probably the Ford plant site or TCAAP and there's already huge pushback against anything significant there. Not to mention Target and Best Buy will throw a shit fit.

But knowing how these things usually go Amazon will probably wind up in suburban Texas. MN's subsidy packages can't really compete with the big dawgs even on the rare occasion we try to. Remember when we lost the Polaris expansion (a freakin snowmobile manufacturer) to broke-ass Alabama?

Silophant
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby Silophant » September 7th, 2017, 8:33 am

50,000 employees would be a whole bunch of office towers if they decided to be downtown, or an enormous campus in the suburbs. For comparison, when Target employed 10,000 downtown employees before the big cuts a couple years ago, they filled the two towers at Target Plaza, most of the office building the store is in, and most of 33 S 6th.

Idk... it would be a huge win for any city to get, but it looks like they're seeking Foxconn/Wisconsin level subsidies, and I'm not too excited for the city/state to spend piles of money to help them kill off Best Buy and Target once and for all, and exacerbate our housing crisis while they're at it.
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SurlyLHT
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby SurlyLHT » September 7th, 2017, 8:39 am

What about the between Park and Portland between 7thst and 9th st? It's in Downtown East, could connect to Downtown via skyway. The Thrivent block would be better... Unfortunately, we don't have a ton of open space. There is also the Gateway block which you could connect to the half block across Hennepin and the other half of the Ritz block and maybe Amazon can do better at building "iconic"?

SurlyLHT
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby SurlyLHT » September 7th, 2017, 8:46 am

Here is the actual text. It does mention multiple locations. Maybe St Paul and Minneapolis?

"Amazon invites you to submit a response to this Request for Proposal (“RFP”) in conjunction with and on
behalf of your metropolitan statistical area (MSA), state/province, county, city and the relevant localities
therein. Amazon is performing a competitive site selection process and is considering metro regions in
North America for its second corporate headquarters. We encourage states, provinces and metro areas
to coordinate with relevant jurisdictions to submit one (1) RFP for your MSA. The RFP may contain
multiple real estate sites in more than one jurisdiction, but we do encourage you to submit your best
sites to meet or exceed the needs of our Project described in this RFP. Any questions regarding the
information or items requested in this document can be submitted using the email below. We
encourage you to go through the process as outlined in the RFP and ask questions of the team using the
email provided below."

min-chi-cbus
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Amazon's New HQ?

Postby min-chi-cbus » September 7th, 2017, 9:17 am

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... ities.html

Does anybody think MN has ANY chance whatsoever of landing Amazon's 2nd US HQ -- purportedly proposed to house up to 50,000 employees and invest $5B? I think no -- hell no -- but that'd be a huge "get" if we did. We could pull a "Sconnie" and make the taxpayers pay for half of it, which is still less than what they're paying for Foxconn's LCD plant ($3B)!

bubzki2
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby bubzki2 » September 7th, 2017, 9:32 am

Certainly would be cost effective to locate in Dt. St. Paul. Really doubt they'd choose us, though. On the other hand, although they'd probably like to have a presence on the other coast, we could offer a better value proposition. Have to also factor in climate perception/reality. I could see Atlanta winning out.

QuietBlue
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby QuietBlue » September 7th, 2017, 9:34 am

Since it is for North America and not specifically the U.S., I'm sure they will give Canada serious consideration too.

MNdible
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby MNdible » September 7th, 2017, 9:41 am

Yeah, I'd say that the Farmer's Market site would definitely be the best bet. It's maybe a little on the small side, depending on how many adjacent sites you could control (you could probably couple it with the Bassett Creek Valley site to make the fit a bit easier). But it will have great transit access, which I'd have to assume would be a critical requirement for Amazon.

That said, I'd really expect that the new location is going to be a Sunbelt location, not just because they tend to offer the best financial incentives. If you're Amazon, and you want a second location, does it really make sense to pick a city that's so similar to your current headquarters?

David Greene
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby David Greene » September 7th, 2017, 9:48 am

Bassett Creek Valley would be a great location. So too would all of the light industrial south of Glenwood. That whole area is going to be one of the best transit-connected in the region.

I know this is a Minneapolis thread, but what about something along Phalen?

Silophant
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Silophant » September 7th, 2017, 9:49 am

I could also see Austin. I think it'll need to be a state with substantial Republican control of both the state government and the federal delegation in order to make the corporate welfare flow as freely as it'll need to.

Also, it probably won't wind up in a city with two existing Fortune 500 retailer HQs.
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Anondson
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Anondson » September 7th, 2017, 9:51 am

I can come up with reasons that make sense to locate.

– Housing costs.
– Easy accessed airport.
– retail corporate talent concentration already here.
– Comparably easy commutes.
– Educated workforce.
Etc. ...

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Tiller
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Tiller » September 7th, 2017, 9:59 am

While we have a really good/developed labor pool, our tight labor market is probably a strike against us.

What if we stuck Amazon's campus on the river between the North Loop and Broadway (~10 acres), and bump up the W Broadway streetcar to LRT? We'd just need to kick the existing users out, though the money needed to buy them out could be a drop in the bucket compared to the total subsidy package.

Re: not in a city with two existing fortune 500 retailer HQ's

I think that could actually be a big advantage, because they could siphon off some of best buy's and target's workers (especially if they gradually downsize their workforces). It's usually a positive to locate in a city with with similar companies/industries. It's why back in the day minneapolis milled flour, Detroit made cars, Pittsburgh made steel, Chicago processed meat, ect. The concentration of talent and expert expertise helps everyone, even if the different companies are competing.

Silophant
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Silophant » September 7th, 2017, 10:00 am

Oh, yeah, if incentives weren't a factor in the decision, it would be easy to see Minneapolis on the shortlist. And, I see Paul Thissen's on board, so clearly I'm being overly idealistic about massive corporate handouts being a Republican thing. Also, would be super hilarious if all of the insanity about the Ford Site was short-circuited by it just becoming a huge Amazon campus.
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min-chi-cbus
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby min-chi-cbus » September 7th, 2017, 10:20 am

Thanks for that snippet! I'd be a bit surprised if the Ford site or Arden Hills were considered as potential locations, since Amazon's big draw is it's Millennial/tech workforce, and their tendencies for being in lively/engaging areas to work/play. I guess the acreage needed for such a HQ would exclude the downtowns? I hope not!

This is such a longshot, but it's fun to dream (including dreaming of no/low subsidy)!

QuietBlue
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby QuietBlue » September 7th, 2017, 10:37 am

*shrug* It's Amazon. They could build it in a cornfield in the middle of Nebraska and they wouldn't have trouble attracting people to work there. Look at Walmart; they don't have trouble drawing people to NW Arkansas.

I don't know. Yeah, it would be quite the achievement to bring them here. But I'm not as bullish on them as many other people are. This could also end up being an albatross for any place that gives them a lot of money.

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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby MNdible » September 7th, 2017, 10:48 am

A couple of thoughts:

1. Their request specifically requests a downtown/urban site.
2. You can justify a much higher subsidy with 50,000 employees (Amazon) than you can with 3,000 (Foxconn).
3. I read elsewhere that the Whole Foods purchase makes Austin a very likely candidate -- that makes a lot of sense.


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