Dix Park is Raleigh's central park.

10/26/2018 1:18:17 PM

Quote :

"Unless you want to be near the center of power."

Raleigh and Atlanta are close enough imo, comparing with people in the West.

10/26/2018 2:05:40 PM

jim west, desperado

10/26/2018 4:34:42 PM

justin bieber, despacito

10/29/2018 9:10:53 AM

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/business/2018/11/02/jeff-bezos-amazon-hq2-alexa-orig.cnn-business

11/2/2018 3:07:49 PM

Surprise surprise https://www.wral.com/amazon-in-advanced-talks-to-build-new-hq-near-dc-reports/17967455/

11/3/2018 1:41:11 PM

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/11/04/sources-triangle-hasnt-been-told-its-out-of-running-for-either-amazon-hq2-or-apple/?ssid=119754944


https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/11/05/amazon-mike-grella-hq2-leaker-crystal-city-va.html

Quote :

"Amazon economic development director warns leaker after HQ2 report"

[Edited on November 5, 2018 at 9:45 AM. Reason : add another thread]

11/5/2018 9:27:33 AM

Quote :

"Raleigh and Atlanta are close enough imo, comparing with people in the West. "

Taking an Uber to the Pentagon and White House is a lot easier than flying to IAD, even private, and then getting a car out. One you can do in under 30 minutes, and the other half a day.

The site they are predicting is practically next door to the Pentagon.

11/5/2018 11:09:50 AM

One of the VPs at my company lives in Atlanta. He gets on a 7am flight and is in Manhattan for 10am meetings with time to spare.

It’s not a half day to get from Atlanta to DC

[Edited on November 5, 2018 at 11:23 AM. Reason : One]

11/5/2018 11:14:56 AM

If you want to travel from Seattle to DC, you have to cross the whole CONTINENT and adjust to the jet lag after you land. So from RDU to IAD is like taking an air bus, not bad.

11/5/2018 11:28:06 AM

Five hours is in fact half a work day.

11/5/2018 12:14:48 PM

Quote :

"is a lot easier than flying to IAD, even private, and then getting a car out."

Why fly into IAD? I'm sure Delta has lots of direct flights from Atlanta to DCA, and Crystal City is right across the street from DCA.

11/5/2018 12:22:44 PM

The WRAL noontime news just interviewed a senior guy on the latest progress of the bid. Only the Dix park near the downtown is the available place for launching the HQ2. And the man said even if we lost the bid, the tech industry in triangle was still booming, like the marriage of IBM and Red Hat, the $1B investment on Epic Games, etc.

11/5/2018 1:43:58 PM

So it's HQ2 and HQ3 now. Very likely they are NYC and Crystal City

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-plans-to-split-hq2-evenly-between-two-cities-1541446552?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Quote :

"Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Evenly Between Two Cities Surprise decision is driven by the need to recruit enough tech talent and to support Amazon’s growth By Laura Stevens Updated Nov. 5, 2018 3:50 p.m. ET Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -2.27% plans to split its second headquarters evenly between two locations rather than picking one city, according to a person familiar with the matter, a surprise decision that will spread the impact of a massive new office across two communities. The driving force behind the decision to build two equal offices for “HQ2”—in addition to the company’s headquarters in Seattle—is recruiting enough tech talent, according to the person familiar with the company’s plans. The move will also ease potential issues with housing, transit and other areas where adding tens of thousands of workers could cause problems. Under the new plan, Amazon would split the workforce with 25,000 employees in each city, the person said. Amazon is in advanced talks with multiple cities but hasn’t made a final decision on which two locations it will pick, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that Amazon was in late-stage discussions with Crystal City in Virginia, Dallas and New York City. A decision and announcement could come as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. When Amazon initially announced its plans for HQ2 more than a year ago, it planned for one location, the person familiar with the plans said. But Amazon’s thinking shifted throughout the process as the company concluded that splitting its offices would allow it access to more tech talent than in just one location, this person said. Amazon has been hiring aggressively across many of its businesses, including for its profit-driving cloud-computing division and for its artificial-intelligence assistant, Alexa. The competition for software engineers, computer programmers and AI experts is fierce across the nation not only from cash-rich tech giants like Amazon but also automotive, banking and retail companies. Amazon wants to deliver everything you want to your doorstep, anywhere in the world. But the e-commerce giant faces several challenges in its pursuit of a global empire. WSJ's Karan Deep Singh breaks down the basics with the help of an Amazon delivery box. Amazon’s shift means the company will essentially be creating two offices that are smaller than its Seattle headquarters, which holds 45,000 workers. The decision to split its long-awaited economic-development project into two follows a more than yearlong search process launched in September 2017, in which Amazon said it was looking for a full, equal headquarters to its Seattle home. The company said it would bring as many as 50,000 employees and more than $5 billion in investments to the new location over nearly 20 years. More than 200 cities and areas sent in proposals, after which Amazon narrowed down the list to 20 finalists. Earlier this year, it conducted whirlwind site visits and requested reams of data from the finalists to help it make its decision. By building two headquarters, Amazon can tap different geographic regions for talent, including some who may not want to move too far from home. It may also not be competing with other major tech giants in a given area, like it does with Microsoft Corp. in the Seattle area. Additionally, the decision would allow it to lessen the potential headaches for chosen areas. Amazon has wanted to avoid being the only large company in town, something it has dealt with in Seattle, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. Adding 50,000 workers—even over more than a decade—would likely cause some hiccups for transit systems and potentially lead to issues like a lack of affordable housing. Northern Virginia’s Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington County, appears to be a front-runner to take one of the two final positions, according to people familiar with the matter. In Northern Virginia, Amazon is already negotiating with government officials on incentives, while it is also talking with JBG Smith Properties , a publicly traded real-estate investment trust, about the Crystal City real estate it owns. Part of the negotiations there involve nailing down the investment targets Amazon would have to meet to qualify for incentives, one of the people said. Crystal City, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., has an urban feel, numerous government offices and a ready-to-go campus with empty, older office space that Amazon could use. The area has good access to tech talent and transportation, two factors that rank high on Amazon’s wish list. Oddsmakers on betting websites have had Northern Virginia as the favorite for most of this year. Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has a home in the D.C. area and owns the Washington Post. The region was also the only metro area where Amazon named three finalists; D.C. proper and Montgomery County, Md., were the other two. Another top candidate, Dallas, has a lower cost of living and public-private partnership incentives, in the form of tax abatements, grants, infrastructure cost sharing and other methods to offset project and operational costs. It is also in Texas, which doesn’t levy personal income taxes. In New York, one neighborhood Amazon has explored is Long Island City, in Queens, the Journal previously reported. The residential neighborhood borders the East River overlooking Manhattan and is being developed with high-rise buildings filled with young professionals. After a campaign rally on Monday, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, told reporters he was doing everything he can to lure Amazon to the state. “We’ve put together a very strong incentive package, and we’ve had great meetings,” Mr. Cuomo said. “It’s been very positive. And anything else I can think of that’ll get us over the top—anything they want named Amazon. I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes, because it would be a great economic boost.”"

[Edited on November 5, 2018 at 5:48 PM. Reason : delete unrelated content]

11/5/2018 5:45:03 PM

I dunno, wouldn't be surprised if this is just a threat based on https://twitter.com/MikeGrella/status/1058768648884682753

I find it very hard to believe that Amazon, especially with the influence they're going to have with HQ2 in whichever city they choose, will have a hard time attracting tech talent to wherever they set up shop. Metro DC is already a reasonably strong tech destination, they're gonna have a LOT more competition for tech talent in NYC, and the tech talent that wants to live in DC area is probably a better fit for Amazon's culture than the kinds of folks who want to work in NYC. this HQ2/3 thing just doesn't feel right to me. they should milk Crystal City for some more concessions to atone for the leak, go ahead and build HQ2 there, and keep building a smaller presence in NYC like you're probably just going to do anyways

11/5/2018 8:26:23 PM

so you're saying there's a chance...

11/5/2018 8:36:29 PM

I'm a bit disappointed with the result. Anyway, business is business. Let's wish Apple is coming to town.

11/6/2018 9:40:18 AM

Crystal City in Arlington, VA
The borough of Queens in NYC, NY

11/13/2018 7:40:12 AM

Let’s hope they throw some more cash at the G train.

11/13/2018 7:50:19 AM

i'm hoping this means that the other cities on the list didn't cave to amazon

11/13/2018 8:14:28 AM

I don't know much about the location in Queens, but I do know something about Crystal City. Arlington built massive office parks and infrastructure about 10 years ago. After they built all of this crap, the pendulum swung and many employers moved back into DC proper; leaving tons of vacant office buildings.
I always assumed amazon was going to build new buildings for HQ2, but either way, there is a ton of land available in a prime location.

11/13/2018 9:08:11 AM

I’m really glad they didn’t choose Raleigh. Raleigh would have been an unusable cluster for a solid 5 years (most likely longer) if they came. DC was already so outrageously priced that I can only imagine what that will do.

11/13/2018 9:09:52 AM

Traffic-wise, this is going to be awful. The Arlington is going to get even more crowded, the commutes will get worse, and an already overburdened metro will probably catch on fire again.

As for cost of living... Well, us homeowners are happy. Every first time home buyer and renter is probably shaking in their Air Force Ones.

11/13/2018 9:32:20 AM

^^^ LIC is an industrial area on the East River thats had a massive amount of housing built over the last decade. Not entirely sure where they will put everything but there is space.

The problem is the G train coming from Brooklyn is a short train and had a history of sucking. The 7 has quite a few issues as well but goes crosstown into Queens and I doubt the employees will live directly off it.

11/13/2018 10:11:52 AM

they could have just used the money they are giving to amazon to fix the line

11/13/2018 1:30:22 PM

MTA budget is controlled by the state but yes I agree.

11/13/2018 1:32:39 PM

New York state is giving Amazon over $1.5B in benefits, up to $525M could be cash

New York city is giving amazon long-term property tax breaks

(Virginia is giving them $550M with an additional $23M coming from Arlington)

11/13/2018 3:29:52 PM

It’s going to cost 500 million to fix a portion of the L train tunnel over a 15 month period. 1.5 billion would not lengthen the G train (affecting dozens of stations) and make it not suck.

Regardless I’m not really concerned with the additional 25k workers. I’d assume a huge chunk of the people hired live in the NYC metro.

11/13/2018 7:02:54 PM

HQ3 is totally raleigh's though

11/13/2018 7:36:28 PM

I predict that ten years from now, they've established offices in most major tech cities and take forever (or maybe never?) to really hit 25k head-count in either "hq2" location.

Also, wtf with splitting it across two sites but those sites being relatively close together on the east coast? If they were going to split across sites anyway, why not make one of the sites in a much different geographical area (e.g. miami/jacksonville, austin, denver, chicago, etc) . Seems like you could tap a whole different talent pool in one of those areas vs DC and NY (but maybe I'm biased against the Northeast and see DC/Philly/Boston/Jersey/etc as basically the same frozen wasteland of yankee-dom ).

11/13/2018 8:08:06 PM

Quote :

"1.5 billion would not lengthen the G train (affecting dozens of stations) and make it not suck. "

The G train can already run full length trains. All of the stations are full length. And in fact it will run them throughout the L train shutdown.

11/13/2018 9:47:27 PM

Well no shit. Good to know.

Also now that I think about it the F runs through most of the G stops and it didn’t go past smith/9th for a very long time.

[Edited on November 13, 2018 at 10:31 PM. Reason : Lol]

11/13/2018 10:25:46 PM

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/11/14/public-records-show-durhams-fight-for-amazons-hq2.html

They did fight for it.

11/14/2018 4:33:18 PM

What i think is the most ironic thing is $100k salary in DC or NY pales in comparison to a $100k job here in NC. You'd think Amazon would want their employee's to get more for the $$

Not knocking DC or NY but you'll live like a fat cat in NC, GA or some of the other options on $100k but in DC/NY it's nothing. Oh well.

11/14/2018 5:12:07 PM

The talent wants to live in New York. Crystal City blows so maybe that office will be accountants.

A 20 something getting paid 100k in nyc will live like a king. They might not save any money tho but that’s not Amazon’s problem.

11/14/2018 6:36:43 PM

It will be Amazon's problem when that 20-something becomes a 30-something with a family and leaves because the location is too expensive.

11/14/2018 10:31:40 PM

Actually, it'll be NYC's problem when all those people leave.

[Edited on November 14, 2018 at 10:55 PM. Reason : .]

11/14/2018 10:54:12 PM

Yea, wherever will they find more 20 something tech workers that want to live in NYC and make more money than they've ever seen?

Goodbye 30 something!

11/14/2018 11:34:20 PM

The population has increased from 8.1 million to 8.6 in the last 8 years. I’d be fine if a few people moved.

11/15/2018 6:57:38 AM

I think Crystal City is a sought after area, for no other reason than it's proximity to DC. When you talk about a city in the DMV, you're really talking about Baltimore, Rockville, Bethesda, Silver Spring, DC, Arlington, Alexandria, etc... functioning as one big metropolitan area.


Plus, Amazon probably wants to cozy up to the federal IT business,

11/15/2018 8:23:44 AM

Quote :

"What i think is the most ironic thing is $100k salary in DC or NY pales in comparison to a $100k job here in NC. You'd think Amazon would want their employee's to get more for the $$ Not knocking DC or NY but you'll live like a fat cat in NC, GA or some of the other options on $100k but in DC/NY it's nothing. Oh well."

It's more like a $160K-$200K salary with bonuses and stock that vests over a few years. It's easy to hit $250K - $300K total comp at the average and it's possible to hit $400K - $500K as you grow your career, which is just not possible in the south. You'd have to found a successful business, or be an orthodontist or surgeon to get that in NC.

However, it is definitely true that $100K feels like a baller in NC.

An aside, Amazon notoriously pays lower base and if they don't like you and you aren't performing they don't re-up the bonuses and stock. Has the effect of torpedoing your spending power and forces you to leave the company without them having to fire you.

[Edited on November 15, 2018 at 9:10 AM. Reason : a]

11/15/2018 9:10:36 AM

I used to ride the G train to work every day. What a piece of shit. Of course back then Greene Point resembled an Eastern Bloc country as well...

11/15/2018 9:41:22 AM

100k in NYC for a 20 y/o is plenty- especially if you have multiple roommates. It's even plenty for people living in SF, which is even more expensive.

My comment earlier wasn't meant to imply that NYC would be left in ruins once all of these people grow up and decide to flee to the suburbs or a lower COL place; I was simply stating who will be left holding the bag. Because NYC is the financial capital of the world, it won't have a hard time attracting talented workers, but the people who will be screwed (and it's already happening) are those who will be displaced by advanced gentrification.

NYC/DC were dumb for offering Amazon incentives. If anything, Amazon should PAY to be able to come in and disrupt the local economies for its own selfish aims.

11/15/2018 10:56:04 AM

Agreed. NYC should have told Amazon to figure it out if they want to be here.

I bet they wold have picked Newark and bused people in.

11/15/2018 11:44:45 AM

https://abc7ny.com/business/plan-for-amazon-hq-in-queens-sparks-protests/4685745/

Not everyone is happy. Queens can't afford Amazon. Come down to RTP!

11/15/2018 12:00:13 PM

https://www.heraldsun.com/news/business/article221710720.html

wake county offered incentives worth up to $277M

fuck that, we dodged a bullet

11/15/2018 2:36:59 PM

The only places that I think would have actually benefited would have been decaying rustbelt cities since they already have some of the preexisting infrastructure, but nobody fucking wants to live in Detroit, Cincy, etc.

Chicago could have worked too because it already has great transit access, and vast swaths of relatively affordable suburbia. Toronto too, I guess.

But now DC/NYC are going to have the Amazon effect (sky high housing costs/overcrowding/tons of homeless people) in spades. Even moreso, since they already had these problems to begin with.

Raleigh def dodged a bullet. I was there last weekend visiting family and it's insane how much it's changed over the last 2-3 years on its own, and it doesn't need Amazon's help urbanizing.

11/15/2018 4:48:31 PM

I heard 25k-40k jobs over 10 years. I don’t think it’s going to effect the city at all.

11/15/2018 5:18:08 PM

I mean LIC was done for once they got rid of Five Pointz and it's not like Arlington has been a middle class place to live for people within the last 10 years or so. I just don't think it's going to make anything better for anyone but Amazon employees and existing homeowners. The people who could actually use a leg up certainly won't be getting one, that's for sure.

11/15/2018 6:24:23 PM

Quote :

"LIC was done for once they got rid of Five Pointz"

wut

[Edited on November 15, 2018 at 6:43 PM. Reason : LIC has been one of the fastest developing areas of the city the last 10 years]

11/15/2018 6:39:05 PM