Amazon

[PhiAlpha]

There's a landfill on the southeast side of town that keeps getting bigger too.

Edit: Damn, PhiAlpha beat me to it.

[catch22]

I am not sure if it is attached to the status of the HQ but I have it on good authority from the planning dept. that amazon will build a distribution center near Will Rogers starting 2018. But no drone program due to the airspace restrictions.

Edit: spell check!

I'm interested in hearing more about this.

[baralheia]

nm

[Bellaboo]

I am not sure if it is attached to the status of the HQ but I have it on good authority from the planning dept. that amazon will build a distribution center near Will Rogers starting 2018. But no drone program due to the airspace restrictions.


Edit: spell check!

What 'planning dept' ?

[warreng88]

Atlanta development proposal just happens to be Amazon-sized

By: Associated Press January 25, 2018

ATLANTA – As Atlanta vies for Amazon’s second headquarters, a developer just happens to be proposing a $5 billion downtown project with 9.3 million square feet of office space – more than three times the amount in the Empire State Building.

No one’s saying it’s for Amazon – yet.

Details of the massive proposed development are coming into view from public records and comments.

An architect working with Los Angeles-based development firm CIM Group presented its proposal Thursday to an Atlanta business group. Christopher Sciarrone never mentioned Amazon during the one-hour presentation.

But when asked after the meeting whether the project would suit Amazon’s criteria for its new headquarters, Sciarrone said “it would seem to.” He added that he does not know whether the project is being pitched as a site for Amazon.

Public documents filed by the group don’t mention Amazon, but specifications of its proposed project are in line with the retail giant’s requirements.

“The big vision for the developer is this really vibrant, urban, mixed-use community that’s walkable, that’s lively 24/7, that’s not just asphalt parking lots,” Sciarrone said.

The office space that would be created “is almost exactly two Sears Towers,” said Thomas Leslie, an architecture professor at Iowa State University who is the author of “Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934.”

“It would be like building two of them right next to each other,” Leslie said of the 110-story Chicago high-rise, which has since been renamed Willis Tower.

The Atlanta development would include 18 buildings in a part of downtown known as “The Gulch,” now covered with vast parking decks and vacant lots and sometimes used as a film set, according to planning documents from the Atlanta Regional Commission. Hollywood crews used it to film scenes from the 2016 movie Captain America: Civil War. The AMC TV show The Walking Dead filmed from a rooftop overlooking The Gulch during the show’s first season.

The office space would be spread throughout 14 of the buildings, which would range in height from 70 to 500 feet, the planning documents state. It would also include a 350-foot hotel with 1,500 rooms and three residential towers.

Metro Atlanta now has about 146 million square feet of office space, and the proposed project would be an increase of about 6.4 percent, said Barbara Denham, a senior economist at New York-based Reis Inc., which tracks commercial real estate.

It would take at least 60,000 jobs to fill all the office space being proposed, Denham said.

However, the metro area has been adding jobs at a rapid rate. Metro Atlanta had seen some of the highest rates of job growth in the U.S., adding 37,100 office jobs last year for a growth rate of nearly 5 percent, Denham said.

Asked whether the project would move forward with or without Amazon, Sciarrone said after Thursday’s meeting, “we hope so.”

“My first question is not just building size, but infrastructure,” Denham said. “Do you have the infrastructure to take on that much in terms of public transportation, highway and road access,” Denham said.

At Thursday’s meeting, Sciarrone noted the existence of two rail transit stations at each end of the development. He said the team working on the project has discussed access to the stations with representatives of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and that public transit would be a key component of the development.

“Something that big creates its own gravity,” Leslie said. “It’s something that’s going to pull the cultural life in a city in its own direction.”

The projected completion date is 2027, which is when Amazon has said it needs up to 8 million square feet of office space in its second headquarters building known as HQ2 which could potentially bring 50,000 workers. Work could begin in about a year, Sciarrone said.

The timeline is “ambitious, but doable,” said Richard Porter, a professor in the School of Building Construction at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Details of the project and its timeline would be likely adjusted, depending on market conditions in the next few years and other factors, Porter said.

Amazon’s Seattle headquarters is 8.1 million square feet, and includes more than 30 buildings.

Most of the 20 finalists for the Amazon project are keeping details of their pitches secret, but Boston has gone public with a massive development proposal on the scale of the Atlanta project.

Along with Atlanta and Boston, the other 18 communities still in the running to land the Amazon project are Austin, Texas; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Newark, New Jersey; New York City; northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, North Carolina; Toronto; and Washington, D.C.

[TheTravellers]

Jeff Bezos’ Quest To Find America’s Stupidest Mayor

[Pete]

Moved a bunch of posts to a new Amazon & Politics thread in the Politics Forum:

http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44125

[T. Jamison]

Sources: Tulsa in Discussions with Amazon to Construct Distribution Center

[Plutonic Panda]

That belongs in the Tulsa subsection.

[warreng88]

Texas city of Arlington says it's out of bid for Amazon HQ2

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The city of Arlington says it's "no longer moving forward" in the competition to become Amazon's second headquarters, and released details of the incentives it offered the online retailer.

Arlington said Tuesday it had been "one of the very select finalists in North Texas asked by Amazon to make an in-person pitch to company executives and provide a site visit for our proposed HQ2 site." But it said it was no longer involved.

"We realize we are no longer a focus in the HQ2 selection process," city spokeswoman Susan Schrock said in an email.

Arlington's pitch was included in the proposal for the Dallas-Fort Worth region, which included many area sites. Arlington says it "remains very supportive" of the region's ongoing effort to land the headquarters.

Amazon had set off the competition last year, and made clear that tax breaks and grants would be a big factor in its decision. In January it released a list of 20 areas still in the running for the $5 billion project that could employ up to 50,000 people. Seattle-based Amazon.com didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Arlington offered incentives estimated at $921 million, including a 10-year property tax abatement and a grant for the hiring of Arlington residents. The city proposed the 200-plus-acre Globe Life Park, soon-to-be-former home of the Texas Rangers baseball team, as the potential site. The team will move into a new stadium in 2020.

The city, which is located between Dallas and Fort Worth, said its 10-year economic model indicated the project could bring more than 96,000 permanent jobs, almost $50 billion in salaries and wages and almost $4 billion in taxable sales.

Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Amazon was looking for a different environment.

"I think it was looking for a more downtown, urban environment but it intrigued them very much that they could come in here and build a downtown right here," he said.

[Pete]

This is really interesting and could prove to be another innovative move in Amazon's bid to take over the world.


Amazon wants you to start a business to deliver its packages

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/28/tech...ers/index.html

[Zuplar]

This is really interesting and could prove to be another innovative move in Amazon's bid to take over the world.


Amazon wants you to start a business to deliver its packages

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/28/tech...ers/index.html

This really isn't totally new, just not something we've seen here. Does this mean this is expanding here?

[stile99]

This really isn't totally new, just not something we've seen here. Does this mean this is expanding here?

??? The article says it starts today. Has it been in beta up until now? This isn't hiring contractors to deliver packages, this is Amazon helping people set up companies (a contractor would not need five to twenty vehicles, for example).

While I'm sure this has been in the works for awhile, long before any ill-informed tweets regarding Amazon stealing from the USPS, this appears to be something new, something designed to move away from using the USPS and other 'last mile' carriers, which should make certain ill-informed tweeters rather pleased with themselves. Until the chickens come home to roost, at least.

[shawnw]

When do they flip the switch from packages to people and then suddenly Amazon is in the Uber/Lyft space.

[poe]

It's been a while since I ordered anything from Amazon, but earlier this week, I realized I needed a random selection of items, so I put in an order. I checked the tracking information this morning and noticed my shipment was in OKC as opposed to Fort Worth, and it's being delivered at my house in Amarillo tomorrow. I expect this will probably be the new normal for most of my orders.

[shawnw]

Is there a reason why we have threads for the fulfillment center and previously for the sortation center, but not for the just announced distribution center at Hefner/I-35?

(apologies if I just missed it)

[BG918]

Looks like the DC area will get the HQ2. Not very surprising..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.e13fb28a906d

[Pete]

Is there a reason why we have threads for the fulfillment center and previously for the sortation center, but not for the just announced distribution center at Hefner/I-35?

(apologies if I just missed it)

Because we reported on the distrubution center some time ago and it's quite small in comparison.

[Laramie]

[Zuplar]

Saw where they are about to be adding several lights in the Portland 89th area around this development. Can’t say I’m surprised but I’m disappointed because we currently have been going up Portland to 89th to avoid the mess at 104th. Can’t got to 119th because it’s so busy it probably needs a light. Just makes those of us west of I44 feel more remote.

[jn1780]

It would be funny with all the money and work cities put on the table, if site selection all came down to a personal grudge.

[Plutonic Panda]

Saw where they are about to be adding several lights in the Portland 89th area around this development. Can’t say I’m surprised but I’m disappointed because we currently have been going up Portland to 89th to avoid the mess at 104th. Can’t got to 119th because it’s so busy it probably needs a light. Just makes those of us west of I44 feel more remote.

If they were synchronized it wouldn’t be a problem. Buuuuuuuuut... LOL

[mugofbeer]

It would be funny with all the money and work cities put on the table, if site selection all came down to a personal grudge.

LOL. In seriousness, it would have been nice to see him put one of the HQs in a place where the choice would have made a real economic difference to the community. Can you imagine the economic boost to Detroit or St. Louis had one gone there instead of perpetuating the coasts?

[jonny d]

LOL. In seriousness, it would have been nice to see him put one of the HQs in a place where the choice would have made a real economic difference to the community. Can you imagine the economic boost to Detroit or St. Louis had one gone there instead of perpetuating the coasts?

While you are right, Amazon went where they knew they would have the workforce for their project. Hence why there were really only 6 cities that could have gotten a project like this: NYC, DC, Boston, Chicago, San Fran/Bay Area, and LA. Any other city was fooling itself. Dallas doesn't have 25,000 workers qualified to do the work Amazon is wanting. Boston is iffy, but there are a ton of colleges there, so they might be able to pull it off.

[mugofbeer]

To a great extent, I know you are right and that is the company line pretty much, but the way I see it is that unless the new HQ site isn't totally UN-desireable, if the job is a good one and the pay is good, people will move from elsewhere. I know it's my taste, but I'd far rather get paid $125-150K/yr in the mid-country somewhere than in Queens. The 25K won't be hired all at once so area schools would be able to set up programs to feed the HQ and, as they do in Seattle, San Fran and San Jose, others can be hired from overseas until they don't need to. I have good friends who lived in San Jose until a year ago. They moved to Dallas with job transfers but kept their 10 year old townhome in San Jose just to be able to rent it for $5K/mo to 6 Indian programmers. The cost of living in those west coast cities as well as NYC and to a great extent, DC, is ridiculous compared to most of the rest of the country. At least they put the OPS center in Nashville - but even there, a city that was already booming economically. I just think Amazon is missing a huge opportunity to really make a difference to an entire region.