Scalding Takes on Amazon’s 2nd HQ Sweepstakes
Let the Wonder Games begin. Amazon recently announced they are searching for an Amazon HQ2 in North America, where they intend to bring 50,000 jobs and $5B+ of economic stimulus to the local economy. Wonder if your Pawnee has what it takes to bring the Gryzzl? Time to make your claim to the world wide web.
I hail from and live in a viable candidate for Amazing HQ2. My hometown happens to have the 3rd largest port in the United States (maybe interesting to a company that loses $1–2billion on shipping Prime goods each year), the 15th busiest international airport in the U.S. (NJ Stats), an existing major subsidiary (Audible), and immediate access to NYC metro talent and markets. And it’s not New York. I feel strange saying this, and I am not sure I that I want to advocate such a dominant corporate presence in my city, but Newark would be prudent target destination.
Still, there is something dark and gilded-age-y about making the announcement and basking in all the cities and places that shout ‘pick me!’
Scalding Takes from a Facebook conversation
My man Howard from Kentucky: although it is a savvy business move
Christian Dean @ Howard — Yup. Raises the value of your very presence like an NFL or NBA team looking to move to a city and eventually getting local funds to pay for 75%-upwards of the arena/offices
My man Howard: I am no financial aficionado but this makes a lot of sense.
Will just expand upon an existing location or if they will build from scratch?
The homie Howard: I wonder if they will just expand upon an existing location or if they will build from scratch?
Christian Dean They have the pockets to build from scratch, but you raise an interesting point. Midwestern (at least non-coastal) areas like Harrisburg or the Lehigh Valley have existing structures that once supported tens of thousands of workers in one place. I’d imagine Detroit to be the ideal spot from that perspective, unless Google basically calling dibs is a deterrent. Pennsylvania specifically and many of middle-America’s past industrial capitals would make a lot of sense too. In those cases, it would make sense to leverage and invest in the existing physical structures.
Also to be fair re:Amazon-world-domination, pro-teams often promise hella jobs and don’t deliver on the economic boost, whereas Amazon has proven how much economic impact they can bring to the table. With or without great working conditions or security, local residents of Anytown, USA having cheap access to even a little bit of shares/stock, as well as just jobs period, is probably good for Anytown, USA. My skepticism remains in that however good it is for Anytown vs Amazon itself is almost 100% in Amazon’s control.
