Amazon's New HQ?

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xandrex
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby xandrex » December 28th, 2017, 2:52 pm

I can't read the article, so I'm not sure what the evidence is behind this speculation (none?), but you'd think if this was happening any time in the near to medium term, Amazon would already be planning it in conjunction with HQ2. Target is already a known entity in Minneapolis with connections and leverage in the city. So if Amazon was actually targeting Target, they'd be stupid to pick another city. Unlike the Whole Foods situation, which was Amazon essentially breaking into a new market, merging two mega retailers' workforces would be the most synergistic (ugh, that term). Otherwise, you'd essentially have a HQ1, HQ2 and Target (which would essentially be HQ3 given its size).

codyzwief
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby codyzwief » December 30th, 2017, 11:54 am

You can disable javascript on Biz Journal articles and it removes the paywall. It's just evidenceless speculation.

I'd be very surprised if Amazon purchases Target. They seem to have purchased Whole Foods because they were struggling to break into grocery, and I don't see them struggling to break into traditional retail.

MattW
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby MattW » January 2nd, 2018, 10:40 am

1000 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... r-predicts

Anondson
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Anondson » January 18th, 2018, 8:16 am

Not the Twin Cities.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/18/amazon- ... to-20.html

Down to a list of 20.

mamundsen
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby mamundsen » January 18th, 2018, 8:33 am

Also seen in this tweet, lots of East Coast:

bubzki2
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby bubzki2 » January 18th, 2018, 8:34 am

Do we think Target was a factor one way or another here? I think most would have had us in the top 20 finalists, unless climate was the key factor.

codyzwief
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby codyzwief » January 18th, 2018, 8:40 am

Do we think Target was a factor one way or another here? I think most would have had us in the top 20 finalists, unless climate was the key factor.
I doubt it. I have a feeling it was because the locations MN picked weren't that appealing outside of 280/University, and the tax breaks were minimal at best.

I really hope they don't pick Chicago. That "Amazon workers pay income tax back to Amazon" thing is really insidious.

Anondson
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Anondson » January 18th, 2018, 8:52 am

I’m cheering for Nashville, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Pittsburgh. Maybe Philadelphia.

Silophant
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Silophant » January 18th, 2018, 8:59 am

I really don't think it came down to anything besides the tax breaks (except for maybe NYC? Don't remember what they offered), so I'm not too heartbroken to not have Minneapolis/St. Paul on the list.

It's a little relieving that we didn't lose out based on inadequate mass transit, though.
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Anondson
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby Anondson » January 18th, 2018, 9:09 am

It’s a bother that competent government (Chicago), climate resilience (Miami), LGBT-friendly laws (Raleigh, Atlanta) didn’t factor.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

David Greene
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby David Greene » January 18th, 2018, 9:33 am

Of course they didn't. Bezos is all talk.

amiller92
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby amiller92 » January 18th, 2018, 9:39 am

Clearly, we were #21.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby VacantLuxuries » January 18th, 2018, 10:30 am

I doubt it. I have a feeling it was because the locations MN picked weren't that appealing outside of 280/University, and the tax breaks were minimal at best.
Ding ding. This was clearly a proposal for urban areas but Minnesota can't ever figure out how to market Minneapolis.

MNdible
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby MNdible » January 18th, 2018, 10:48 am

The full list of local sites was never released, right?

I guarantee that the reason that Minneapolis didn't make the cut had nothing to do with the site options we presented.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby VacantLuxuries » January 18th, 2018, 10:58 am

It was likely taxes first and foremost, but Greater MSP was the one doing the pushing.

Which meant they probably led with the Arden Hills site, then the Bloomington site they failed to sell to the World's Fair. We were at a disadvantage from the start with our taxes and not being willing to throw the kitchen sink at this (which I'm fine with!) but that meant we needed a killer hook, and a former army dump out beyond 694 with the potential to MAYBE extend the bus out there was a losing opener.

One thing is for sure, we need people better at selling Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and not "all the empty land surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul"

MNdible
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby MNdible » January 18th, 2018, 11:03 am

My understanding is that the proposal included a number of both urban and suburban sites, and didn't rank them at all. You'd be excused for perhaps thinking otherwise, because locally certain sites used the Amazon race as a route to get some free PR.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby VacantLuxuries » January 18th, 2018, 11:05 am

Well now that we're out, hopefully our proposal will be made public so there can be a post-mortem. I might just have an axe to grind at our boosters after fumbling on both this and the world's fair.

QuietBlue
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby QuietBlue » January 18th, 2018, 11:32 am

If Amazon was willing to consider the suburbs of D.C. (NoVa and Maryland) as finalists, I don't see how any site we would have offered would have been worse as far as not being "urban" enough.

mattaudio
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby mattaudio » January 18th, 2018, 11:52 am

It's almost like all of their requirements are flexible for the right price, and this is just a ploy to extract as much subsidy as possible.

QuietBlue
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Re: Amazon's New HQ?

Postby QuietBlue » January 18th, 2018, 12:05 pm

It's almost like all of their requirements are flexible for the right price, and this is just a ploy to extract as much subsidy as possible.
Yep. People made a lot of assumptions about what Amazon wanted that may not turn out to be true depending where they end up.


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