Atlanta On Short List For Amazon HQ2
As has been predicted by most of the informed folks following Atlanta’s bid to land Amazon’s HQ2 – and up to 50,000 jobs that come with it – Atlanta has made the short list of cities that will now enter the real competition stage for this Super Bowl of Economic Development. Conor Sen shared the news on twitter:
#AtlantaIsNow pic.twitter.com/u1zjI9qau8
— Conor Sen (@conorsen) January 18, 2018
Amazon’s official announcement can be found here.
Given the very large number of cities still in contention, one could reasonably expect that there will be another down-select round, formally or informally, when the real, likely very expensive, negotiations begin. Governor Deal has already indicated that a special session of the Georgia General Assembly may be required to approve any deal that is made.
Updated: Here’s the full list, courtesy of CNBC:
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
Montgomery County, MD
Nashville, TN
Newark, NJ
New York City, NY
Northern Virginia, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Raleigh, NC
Toronto, ON
Washington D.C.
Conor Sen points out via twitter that 3 of the 20 spots are in the DC region, which he speculates is to stoke a bidding war between Virginia, Maryland, and DC. That’s possible, but it could be that the DC region is one of their preferred locations (it’s scored well in many of the rankings) as is Atlanta. There’s no word on how many sites are under consideration in each city, so it’s entirely possible that the Atlanta area also has multiple sites under consideration – you just won’t have the Atlanta region bidding against itself, as most of the incentive burden will likely come from the state.
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Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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I thought I saw somewhere that Stonecrest, GA offered to de-annex some of itself and rename it Amazon, GA. I wonder how much of an incentive that is.
This idea, although from my limited knowledge, is not even possible. The City has no power to create any new municipal authority without the State, and there can be no lawless piece of property. If the site was in Stonecrest, it would be in Stonecrest. If they de-annexed, it would be in unincorporated DeKalb. I think they would be free, however, to name their property development per negotiations with the Planning Dept.
Looking more at the employees’ perspective at Glassdoor and other sites the rumored Apple plum appears to be a much better catch than Amazon. The treatment of tier 1 employees and the Darwinian approach in their treatment of their own lower management personnel can give one a more favorable impression of the 19th Century robber barons. Given their history of avoiding rendering anything to Caesar without biting, scratching or kicking along with almost no contributions to local communities short of providing low paying jobs to marginals, I just really don’t see that the taxpayers should be overjoyed at the prospect of giving away concessions to the richest man in the world. Though Trump seemingly hates Bezos so there is that.
Quotes from existing employees just from the top of the comments on Glassdoor:
“This company gets A list performance from C list employees.” This was a “pro” comment btw.
“Peers will stab you in the back, your manager will blame you for their errors, you can’t trust anyone”
“No work life balance at the FC [fulfillment center] , unless you are senior level”
“Managers are expected to work 60-70 hours per week”
I don’t think anyone in the Economic Development/political food chain will be looking at these as either/or. They’ll go heavily after both, with the intent to win both.
Look at the job announcements in metro Atlanta over the past several years. We’re gaining a lot of high tech companies/divisions from mid-town to Alpharetta. We’re adding about 80-100K people in the region per year. Amazon and Apple put high profile names to what is already happening, and barring major changes in policy, will continue to happen.
Andrew, Do I house exchange. Find a house the in-laws want. You pay the mortgage as part of you renting out their house. You have deed transfers in place. I have this with my mom and sibling. The disciple of Ron Paul is “renting” the large house, while paying mom mortgage on the condo. Deed automatically transfer. The only down side is if we need to liquid mom’s assets if she is out lasts her retirement funds and long term insurance policy. He would have to pay the taxes and fees on income gained if I sell it below value to him while she is still alive.
Well of course they will, but at what cost to the taxpayers in the end. Bezos has proven to be a master at selling ideas even those that tend to destroy other local businesses and even when his own company is either losing money or barely making a profit. Republicans are always talking about ending subsidies for individuals but are great at promoting corporate subsidies. It still hasn’t been proven to my satisfaction that the ROI is so great for the $2 Billion Georgia donates to the movie industry. Should government be in the venture capital business? (See also: Southern Company/Georgia Power/Plant Vogtle).
20 is not a short list. I think the use of “short list” language is itself a tactic to instill hope in order to up the gamesmanship of incentives.
Agreed. LA? Toronto? NYC? LOL
They keep dangling this pretty bait but have yet to even let it hit the water.
How much land do they need for this campus? 50,000 people working in one area seems to need alot of land.
Shame Cobb whored itself out for the Braves. All us Cobb folk will get is the ability to pay for parking anywhere we go.
Well Fort Mac would have been a perfect location for such a campus. With a train station and an area ripe for revitalization, gentrification, what have you. But Kasim already gave it to Tyler Perry for nothing.
There’s the old GM plant site. And The Gulch.