Amazon Considering Northern Virginia as Their Second Corporate Headquarters

[DonRocks]

I have a two-word response to this:

"If Jeff Bezos Makes Washington the Second Headquarters of Amazon" by Osita Nwanevu on newyorker.com ...

Disney'$$$ Amerika.

(However, real estate developers bought up all that land, and built cheap townhomes instead, increasing the population of Prince William County by 100,000 people in the last decade, so is this area really any better off?)

[DaveO]

Well Amazon  chose Crystal City and NYC and just pulled out of NYC

Lots of opposition for many reasons.  My gut is this ultimate growth in Arlington will cause significant pro’s and cons.  

If i was a talented tech savvy worker in the area I’d love it.  Lots of appropriate jobs and a probable strong upward push on salaries region wide.  If I had a restaurant in the Crystal City atea with a locked in long term lease I’d love it.  If I were a residential renter in the area I’d hate it.

[DonRocks]

2 hours ago, DaveO said:

If I were a residential renter in the area I’d hate it.

😶

[reedm]

I'm surprised they didn't opt for a location near Dulles, aka the new technology corridor. Proximity to Dulles is a time and money saver, and the omnipresent data centers make it a logical choice to me, but what do I know. 

[DonRocks]

7 minutes ago, reedm said:

I'm surprised they didn't opt for a location near Dulles, aka the new technology corridor. Proximity to Dulles is a time and money saver, and the omnipresent data centers make it a logical choice to me, but what do I know. 

Ah, but Crystal City is ripe for being demolished and rebuilt with modern office space and condos (plus, it's close to lots of tear-down houses, Metro, and the Capitol). All of a sudden, Amazon becomes the non-governmental centroid of Washington, DC.

[reedm]

21 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Ah, but Crystal City is ripe for being demolished and rebuilt with modern office space and condos (plus, it's close to lots of tear-down houses, Metro, and the Capitol). All of a sudden, Amazon becomes the non-governmental centroid of Washington, DC.

I fully agree. I meant to say they didn’t opt for an “additional” location near Dulles. 

[DaveO]

1 hour ago, reedm said:

I'm surprised they didn't opt for a location near Dulles, aka the new technology corridor. Proximity to Dulles is a time and money saver, and the omnipresent data centers make it a logical choice to me, but what do I know. 

Many large corporate employers want metro these days.  A significant component of the search for space and location is accessibility to talent.  Today's young talent likes sites closer to the city and accessible to Metro.  That element is different from when the Dulles Corridor took off and became the tech hub of the region

An element in the original Amazon requirement was access to transit

[DaveO]

On 2/14/2019 at 1:51 PM, DaveO said:

Well Amazon  chose Crystal City and NYC and just pulled out of NYC

Lots of opposition for many reasons.  My gut is this ultimate growth in Arlington will cause significant pro’s and cons.  

If i was a talented tech savvy worker in the area I’d love it.  Lots of appropriate jobs and a probable strong upward push on salaries region wide.  If I had a restaurant in the Crystal City atea with a locked in long term lease I’d love it.  If I were a residential renter in the area I’d hate it.

There are many reasons a city or region should want a large tech employer such as amazon in its midst and similarly many reasons why they wouldn't want an Amazon, especially because of the "deal" it got, one in NYC and two in Crystal City.  In both cases those are huge amounts of state and local money going into the coffers of a big company....that really doesn't need it.  The money could go to schools and plenty of other great applications.

I looked back at something:  In 2010 Google purchased a massive just under 3 million sq. ft building in NYC for about $1.9 billion.    I don't recall seeing anything about tax breaks for Google.  If fully occupied by google employees that building could theoretically house about 15,000 employees, or about 60% of the projected # of Amazon employees in either Crystal City or NYC.  Many of those engineers make tremendous salaries.  Its the type of corporate tenant regions want;  all those high income people paying higher local taxes and spending a lot in the area. That is the dream of landing an Amazon in any region.   The downsides are increases in traffic and upward pushes on things like affordable housing. 

As a result of Amazon's sudden decision to pull out of NYC after a year+ of a well covered well  described search for locations there are many editorials both pro and con.  Frankly I don't think cities states and regions need to throw so much money at these businesses.  OTOH, as a broker, I did exactly what Amazon did on behalf of tenants relocating.....of course none of those entities being even remotely close to a tiny percentage of the size and scope of the Amazon search.  I think the Amazon search is the largest such search in US corporate history.   Nevertheless in looking for alternative space the tenants ALWAYS work to get negotiating leverage, getting landlords and buildings to compete against one another with better deals to attract occupancy.  Its relatively rare when jurisdictions move in...but it is occurring with more frequency...even for tenants relocating possibly in the 20-25,000 foot range.   Its all part of the negotiating game.

Its a freaking waste of tax payer money and sort of a zero sum game....certainly in this area when Virginia gets a DC tenant or DC gets a Virginia tenant after the state or jurisdiction throws in taxpayer bennies.