Amazon Reportedly Picks New York, Northern Virginia for HQ2 :
Decision to be formally announced as soon as Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reports.
[...] It appears Amazon couldn't settle on a single site for its second corporate headquarters and has decided to divide the duties between a second and third headquarters.
The online retailing giant is expected to announce as soon as Tuesday it's chosen New York City and northern Virginia's Crystal City for its planned second headquarters -- dubbed HQ2, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday night, citing people familiar with the matter. Other cities may get other responsibilities, the newspaper added.
Amazon's HQ2 gained attention as one of the biggest corporate projects in the US, with the e-retailer planning to hire 50,000 workers and spend $5 billion. The company fueled excitement about its plans by inviting cities to pitch themselves as sites for the development.
It was reported earlier this month that Amazon was examining the option of creating two separate 25,000-person campuses, in part due to the need to hire enough tech talent and partly to ease housing and traffic concerns. Two HQ2 projects would also ensure that Seattle remains Amazon's definitive headquarters.
I don't suppose Amazon would settle for one 30,000 person campus and one 20,000 person campus, should they be able to cut a better deal with one city over the other?
Related Stories
Google to Invest More Than $1 Billion to Expand NYC Campus
Google will invest more than $1 billion to expand its New York City presence, the search giant said in a blog post Monday.
The Alphabet Inc. division said it had reached lease agreements at 315 and 345 Hudson St. and signed a letter of intent at 550 Washington St. to make up the new 1.7 million-square-foot (158,000-square-meter) campus, to be called Google Hudson Square.
Google aims to move into the new Hudson buildings by 2020 and the Washington Street location by 2022, Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said in the blog post. The move could allow the company to more than double the current 7,000 people it employs in the city over the next decade.
Also at Ars Technica and CNBC.
Related: Amazon Reportedly Picks New York, Northern Virginia for HQ2
Apple Announces Plan to Build $1 Billion Campus in Texas
Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters
Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from lawmakers, progressive activists and union leaders, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives.
The decision was an abrupt turnabout by Amazon after a much-publicized search for a second headquarters, which had ended with its announcement in November that it would open two new sites — one in Queens, with more than 25,000 jobs, and another in Virginia.
Amazon's retreat was a blow to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, damaging their effort to further diversify the city's economy by making it an inviting location for the technology industry.
The agreement to lure Amazon to Long Island City, Queens, had stirred intense debate in New York about the use of public subsidies to entice wealthy companies, the rising cost of living in gentrifying neighborhoods, and the city's very identity.
Also at the Long Island City Post, CNBC, CNN, and the Washington Post.
Previously: Amazon Said to be Close to Picking Crystal City, Virginia for Second Headquarters
Amazon Reportedly Picks New York, Northern Virginia for HQ2
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @03:00PM (2 children)
both are within 7 miles of a home of BEOS. He does not want to commute to work, un like is to be under paid employees for the area.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 13 2018, @03:03PM
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-owns-five-massive-homes-across-the-united-states-2017-10 [businessinsider.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 13 2018, @03:45PM
I wonder if there's a site where I can order a guillotine online.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 13 2018, @03:45PM (6 children)
These people aren't going to get to work at 8:00. Fifty thousand people, flung out across a city and a county? How are they all going to cram into the parking lots at the same time? Ain't happening.
To put that into perspective, the USS Gerald R. Ford has 1/10th of that crew. The entire crew doesn't leave the ship, then return to the ship, all at the same time. It's nigh impossible to do so. But, Amazon is going to put 50,000 in and out of the gates within a few minutes of 8:00, and then again about 4:00, each and every day? I don't think so. People may be looking at hour long commutes, if they live nearby. People further out will be doing two and three hour commutes.
What am I talking about? New York City already has hour long commutes for workers who live nearby.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 13 2018, @04:16PM
They originally planned 50k in a second HQ. But they divided that by half. 25k in New York City, 25k in Crystal City.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by drussell on Tuesday November 13 2018, @04:46PM (2 children)
Presumably not all 50k jobs would be standard 8-4 / 9-5 jobs, there would likely be some operations 24 hours a day at the HQ2 campus. This means at least part of your workforce is going to be in shifts and if you split the non-daytime jobs into two groups so they start and end at 4 hour increments instead of 8 x 3 it would significantly reduce traffic issues. They could at least interleave some operations staff at different hours than the main"office" workforce. Parking for those not coming in and out via some sort of transit system obviously needs to be provided for the maximum number that are there at any one time but it is not like they would be expecting all 50,000 people to show up and leave at the exact same times.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 13 2018, @05:17PM
25,000 people each at two locations, not 50,000.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday November 13 2018, @08:47PM
Look to Las Vegas for the answers. Multiple casinos, and I know some of them have more than 10k workers. All told, I believe there might be 150k-200k casino workers in Las Vegas. So for the purposes of discussion, two casinos directly next to each other with 8k employees each should approximate one major HQ with 16k. It's fairly dense, population wise, at any one time on the strip.
The one thing I do know, rush hour traffic comes at multiple times. Casinos do stagger their work force, and even cooperate to an extent. You easily have 25k people leaving the casinos at the end of graveyard shift, being replaced by others. Last time I was there, the freeway was pretty much busy 24/7.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Tuesday November 13 2018, @08:37PM
Northern Virginia already has two and three hour long commutes. Business as usual.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @10:31PM
You haven't worked at a high-tech company like Amazon, have you? In their Seattle headquarters, there are people arriving before 5am. And people arriving around 11am. It's all over the board when people arrive at work. Flex time is a given. In my experience, no one monitored how many hours a person worked. It was the output you provided. Of course, if you tried to work 6 hours a day (and by a miracle could also produce at least an acceptable output) you'd get coached to better utilize your time.
As others have said, not everyone will arrive and leave at the same times.
Nor will they arrive using the same method. Some by car. Some by carpool. Some by vanpool. Some by Amazon shuttles. Some walk/bike ride. Etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @04:22PM (6 children)
the federales could be motivated to set a 100% tax rate on these city-bancrupty promoting, school and quality of community life killing deals belonging into textbooks as cases to demonstrate the nightmare effects of a race-to-the-bottom such as the one we're just calling complete.
by getting (costly) offers produced by municipalities, then leveraging those to get even better offers from where the boss already resides, everyone gets played by the richest man on earth.. who plays this game against everyone everywhere there's a physical amazon presence.
I don't suppose anyone else sees an ethical/business problem behind the way these deals are conducted?
sure, for a moment it looked like it was a move toward insuring business continuity and survival in case of a disaster; not anymore though.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Tuesday November 13 2018, @06:37PM
Doubtful. They would probably argue that it would just be moved to a more friendly country.
Can you imagine Amazon running out of Mexico? On the minus side, you REALLY couldn't pull off a wall. On the plus side, you wouldn't have to anymore...
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday November 13 2018, @07:53PM
As long as the guys who fund the guys who run the Federales continue to give "campaign contributions" tax increases won't happen.
More subsidies might though.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday November 13 2018, @08:56PM (2 children)
I think every person from Governor, down to city councilman should be sacked for it. Why the fuck would we pay 1.5 billion for a megacorp to come in again? How is that being part of the community, like all their fucking marketing is going to suggest? We need to pay for schools, roads, medical, infrastructure. Amazon OWES the 1.5 billion dollars to the community in the form of taxes. That should never be abated for any fucking reason. Unless Amazon can directly, and with legal commitment, show benefits to the community EXCEEDING 1.5 billion worth of improvements. Not 1.5 billion in living wages, but 1.5 billion in taxes on living wages.
No fucking wonder we can't find any money to do anything. Why the poor cannot be helped, why we cannot afford medical, etc. All the fucking money is given away to parasites like Bezos. May they all burn in the deepest levels of hell.
If fucking Amazon can get 1.5 billion, than all the non-profits and charities should get 100% tax relief, and funded up to 1.5 billion. Even it out to where the community is actually better of by that shithead putting his HQ in it.
I'm glad the corruption of Northern California wasn't able to bid high enough for the privilege of being fucked by Bezos.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 13 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)
One only needs to look at Seattle and the problems it has with affordable housing, homelessness and roads/infrastructure. It's a nightmare. Personally, I don't see how Amazon could grow much further in Seattle at this point. They've already leased two buildings in Bellevue, across the lake from Seattle.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday November 14 2018, @02:10AM
NY infrastructure is melting; especially transportation.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @12:03PM
https://www.fastcompany.com/90267287/here-are-the-most-infuriating-details-of-amazons-hq2-deals [fastcompany.com]
https://www.fastcompany.com/90266892/new-york-got-played-by-amazon [fastcompany.com]
just following up with some fast-company links; thanks for the great feedback guys!
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday November 13 2018, @04:30PM
Many west coast companies are opening secondary sites to provide options to the employees where the cost of living doesn't price out potential employees. It looks like Amazon does not have this problem, NYC is damn expensive and Arlington is not cheap either.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday November 13 2018, @06:03PM (1 child)
Corporations have really played communities for suckers. All the easier that local governments are so ripe for it. Suburbs and neighboring communities get into vicious fights with each other over the damnedest trivial issues, as if they're separate nations that might go to war with each other, instead of closely related communities part of the same state. Just why it is so important that a community keep growing goes largely unanswered, as if it is too obviously a good thing to be questioned, so good it's worth the bad blood it creates to play cutthroat competition with the neighbors.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by etherscythe on Tuesday November 13 2018, @06:43PM
I think if you drill down you'll probably discover it is the cutthroat businesses which want continued growth. They don't care about the common good, except insofar as charity can get them tax breaks. And when every dollar is free speech, democracy can get shouted down.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday November 13 2018, @07:52PM (1 child)
well paraphrase:
In this example, Bezos's drinks cabinet stays within 10K of home office...
(Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Tuesday November 13 2018, @09:00PM
Read it in his voice. Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Tuesday November 13 2018, @11:34PM
Amazon should just build their own town somewhere like Kohler did.