Amazon Announces that It's Looking for Second Eastern HQ

[mcgrath618]

[QUOTE]NEW YORK — Amazon, bursting out of its Seattle headquarters, is hunting for a second home. Must haves: A prime location, close to transit, with plenty of space to grow.

The company said Thursday that it will spend more than $5 billion to build another headquarters in North America to house as many as 50,000 employees. It plans to stay in its sprawling Seattle headquarters and the new space will be “a full equal” of its current home, said founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Amazon’s announcement highlights how fast the company is expanding and is certain to create a scramble among cities and states vying to make the short list. They have a little more than a month to apply through a special website , and the company said it will make a final decision next year.
Amazon said its search is open to any metropolitan area in North America that meets the parameters — the city itself doesn’t necessarily have to be a million people — but declined to say how open it was to going outside of the United States.

“We want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit,” the company said on its search website, about why it was choosing its second headquarters through a public process.

Bezos has crowdsourced major decisions before - in June, just before Amazon announced its plan to buy organic grocer Whole Foods, the billionaire took to Twitter seeking ideas for a philanthropic strategy to give away some of his fortune. And tech companies have been known to set places in competition with each other: In vying to land Google’s ultra-fast broadband network, many cities used stunts and gimmickry to get the company’s attention. Topeka even informally renamed itself “Google, Kansas.”

In just the last month, Amazon announced plans to build three new warehouses that pack and ship packages in New York, Ohio and Oregon. And it recently paid close to $14 billion for Whole Foods and its more than 465 stores. The company plans to hire 100,000 people by the middle of next year, adding to its current worldwide staff of more than 380,000.

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[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/prime-real-estate-amazon-opens-search-for-2nd-hq/2017/09/07/59818352-93b9-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html?utm_term=.76d78a0aaf09[/url]

Holy shit, this is huge, especially for Rust Belt cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia who desperately need this development. NYC, Philly, Atlanta, and Baltimore all have large scale projects that would suit Amazon well (especially Philly, though maybe I am biased).

[Gbps]

It's quite likely that it will be Pittsburgh.

I just moved here, and it's starting to feel very much like the Bay Area. Both Google and Uber built campuses here, and CMU is pumping out CS people like nothing. The general cost of living is so much more relaxed here than in the Bay Area as well.

Just the general conversations you here on the bus and whatnot are all tech. I have a feeling Amazon will be taking advantage of this.

[JennyC6]

I'd love to see them hit Detroit up. Ol' Motown needs the business far more than most cities. It wont totally reverse their misfortune but having such a huge name open such a huge facility there can only help.

[Vitalogy]

I have a feeling it will be between Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Raleigh. All fairly cheap locations that have shown a growing tech industry in recent years. I'm biased towards Indy, however with Purdue nearby and an Amazon center in the city already it could be a perfect fit.

[Discofex]

Well one of the new warehouses is in Buffalo, they might build it with an HQ in mind.

[thrawn2787]

Sorry, where does the artic mention "East"?

[Dr.C]

[QUOTE=thrawn2787;52658068]Sorry, where does the artic mention "East"?[/QUOTE]

I actually used ctrl+f on the article and it didn't even appear as part of another word.

[Kommodore]

[QUOTE=Gbps;52657804]It's quite likely that it will be Pittsburgh.

I just moved here, and it's starting to feel very much like the Bay Area. Both Google and Uber built campuses here, and CMU is pumping out CS people like nothing. The general cost of living is so much more relaxed here than in the Bay Area as well.

Just the general conversations you here on the bus and whatnot are all tech. I have a feeling Amazon will be taking advantage of this.[/QUOTE]

i hope you like $8 kale tacos and being priced into suburbs you didnt know existed

[isak]

[QUOTE=Gbps;52657804]It's quite likely that it will be Pittsburgh.

I just moved here, and it's starting to feel very much like the Bay Area. Both Google and Uber built campuses here, and CMU is pumping out CS people like nothing. The general cost of living is so much more relaxed here than in the Bay Area as well.

Just the general conversations you here on the bus and whatnot are all tech. I have a feeling Amazon will be taking advantage of this.[/QUOTE]

I used to live near Austin. At first, the economic boom from people priced out of Cali is great. And then the traffic happens and the weird quirky local food spots start getting replaced with In-N-Outs. The prices jump, the cost of living soars to just under Cali levels, and [I]the fucking traffic[/I] makes you want to murder someone.

Enjoy it while it lasts lol