October 19, 2017 4:27 PM
Georgia Delivers For Amazon
The state of Georgia has delivered it’s pitch to Amazon for HQ2, which was due today. Never to let any opportunity past to Always Be Closing, Georgia used the delivery itself as part of it’s sales pitch, as shown in the video below:
You can find more about how Georgia stacks up against the competition in an older post here. The RFP has been answered. Now the bidding war officially begins.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Honestly I think Atlanta has a shot just based on the criteria. The one weak spot might be transit, but if the legislature shows a willingness to be a true partner…who knows. I used to hear Denver on lots of the lists…not so much now
There are/were sites and ideas considered that few of us would have ever thought of.
Inc. apparently doesn’t consider ATL among the top 5.
https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/amazon-hq2-proposal-deadline-has-arrived-here-are-top-5-contenders.html
Atlanta has a lot going for it, but how do we beat Austin or Boston?
Fortune has ATL in the top 6 though:
http://fortune.com/2017/10/18/amazon-hq2-top-cities/
INC’s list makes no sense. Detroit was included solely because the writer wants to see the city make a comeback. Raleigh/Durham is on there even though they have no train system, aren’t a logistics and transportation hub and offer no benefits that Charlotte, let alone Atlanta, doesn’t exceed in spades. Denver is too close to Seattle, HQ1 and even the writer doesn’t allege that it is known for tech talent. “Washington, D.C. is not to be ignored as a legitimate contender.” Why? Because she says so. Austin is too small – less than a million people – and her claim “Austin infrastructure is strong with an international airport and, unlike other large Texas cities, a strong public transit system” is flat out wrong … if DART and MTAH aren’t good transit systems then no one outside of the northeast has one. It looks like this is merely a list of the places that the author likes. That’s why the list includes 2 college towns (3 if you consider that Denver is merely a half hour from Boulder) and 3 cities that she merely wants to see profiles raised, 2 cities that don’t even have the best infrastructure or tech worker population in their own states, and a couple that aren’t known for tech workers or as transit hubs at all.
The Fortune list – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and Washington D.C. – is a more serious one. Even there, D.C. is probably included because Bezos bought the Washington Post and just bought a house there. Otherwise it makes no sense. And New York is on the list solely because Fortune Magazine is located there. (Both New Jersey and Connecticut make more sense than New York). I personally say that it will either be Dallas/Houston, Chicago or Atlanta with the former 2 being decided frontrunners. If Atlanta is chosen it would be because Amazon prioritizes geography and logistics (Hartsfield plus the railroads) above all else as both Dallas/Houston and Chicago have far more tech talent than Atlanta does, owing to the whole state of Georgia having only one research engineering school.
Amazon’s largest datacenters are in Northern Virginia, as is a lot of their tech staff. I wouldn’t rule out that area. Still the cost of living and cost of real-estate don’t weigh in their favor.
Atlanta will lose because of the traffic, the schools, and the intersection of those two. If you want a moderately decent government school, you’ve got to suck up for three hours a day in the car.
“Amazon’s largest datacenters are in Northern Virginia, as is a lot of their tech staff.”
Yeah I forgot about that. So it probably wouldn’t be in DC but near it, northern VA like you said. As far as cost of living/real estate, well there is Silicon Valley, D.C. proper, New York and everywhere else. So that would put northern VA to top of the list and bump Atlanta off IMHO.
I don’t think that Amazon is choosing this HQ based on logistics … their ability to ship goods and such. It would give Atlanta a better shot if they did, but you can build distribution hubs for that.
Slate has a pretty good analysis:
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/09/your_city_will_lose_the_contest_for_amazon_s_new_hq.html#lf_comment=733676933
My favorite comment:
“Philadelphia will likely put itself out of the running. We don’t just have the NIMBY syndrome; we’ve moved on to BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone).”
Look at how much public money we’ve given billionaires to build sports stadiums! You could be next! https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/10/19/lets-all-hope-new-york-gets-outbid-for-amazon/