Amazon HQ2 Downtown?

Either way this will bring skyrocketing rents to Raleigh as people increasing move out of the Northeast. We lost twice. At least it’s finally over.

Usually, details about bids like these seem to see the light of day after the results are announced. The Toyota(?) factory that went for Alabama instead of NC, pitches for the preliminary round of HQ2 etc. all went that way.

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I’d like to know what Nashville’s proposal was that landed the 5,000 job Amazon operations center.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2018/11/13/its-official-amazon-splits-hq2-between-northern.html

Yes the little center for Nashville hurts. That would have been a good size for us in downtown as well

“In addition, Amazon announced it selected Nashville for a new Center of Excellence for its Operations business, which is responsible for the company’s transportation, supply chain and other activities. That site will receive 5,000 jobs.”

Transportation and supply chain is much more in Nashville’s wheelhouse than the Triangle. We would have a better shot at certain biotech and technology business units.

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So far we’ve lost every single competition and Apple still hasn’t announce its intentions at RTP but now it doesn’t look like that will happen as well.

On top of that we lost Red Hat to IBM which will most definitely kill Red Hat within 5 years.

Let’s stay optimistic. Amazon HQ2 was a long shot from the beginning. The process however long and annoying was excellent advertisement for the area. Landing apple remains a good chance and my feeling is we should hear soon one way or the other now that the midterms are over and Amazon has announced. Fingers crossed

Now local developers finally get moving again since they can’t flip the dirt for a quick buck :slight_smile:

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Yeah the doom and gloom isn’t necessary. It was a positive thing just being on Amazon’s shortlist even without the win. And other then the silence, there’s been nothing published to point to Apple not still coming here so we just have to wait on that. But regardless DTR is doing great. We don’t have 40+ story towers going up left and right but there’s a ton of great city building projects underway or soon to start that will be very important to DTRs growth into a proper big city feeling core. RedHat has been bought yes, but there’s been nothing yet confirmed about them moving out of downtown so let’s chill on that. And other significant companies have chosen downtown recently for expansion. I think we sometimes forget that. The office space has been absorbed very well with One Glenwood, Dillon, and FNB filling right up. Not to mention all the new retail and residential. DTR will soon be at 10k people and will continue to be a place companies choose to locate within the Triangle. There’s nothing to be negative about really. We have to remember the Triangle is unique in the way it’s setup. DTR isn’t the only core or anchor to the whole metro like a Nashville/Charlotte/Austin is so the development is a little more spread out. But I’m confident bigger things are in the pipeline.

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Just out of curiosity - what other significant companies have announced expansion plans in Downtown recently?

It’s not doom and gloom. Raleigh is basically recession proof in our lifetime but small fry projects means less interesting architecture and more budget parking lots with offices for hats projects. Less philanthropic Jim Goodnight’s and more businesses asking the city of Raleigh for tax relief and threats of relocations.

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Well it depends on what you consider significant I guess. If it’s an Amazon sized company, then none. But FNB is literally anchoring the biggest tower under construction in downtown in a while. WeWork is taking up a lot of space in One Glenwood. Arch Capital helped fill the Dillon which will likely lead to another of Kane’s office buildings to get started quickly. Just as some examples. Just the thought that DTR is having a hard time attracting companies or keeping them (when there’s nothing saying RedHat will move), is an overreaction.

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With stories like The Dillon filling up their office space in under a year after opening, I think the DTR office market is doing well.

At the same time, I know one company that moved to The Dillon came from another DTR location so I could be off a bit. I imagine a look at the DRA’s figures could help show us the strength of DT office space.

I continue to be a fan of smaller installments of companies in downtown. A diverse workforce would help us weather any economic storms in the future. Seems like the big players are Citrix and Red Hat. You might also consider the govt entities “players” also with The City, the County, and the State.

We should be talking about those 1,000-5,000 employee grabs that seem much more realistic for downtown. With lower land prices in RTP, making space for 5,000+ just seems to make more sense.

What other companies downtown hover around 1,000?

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Random question - but what exactly does Nashville have going for them in terms of transportation? (not too familiar)

Lots of expressways, lots of traffic. I believe they are trying to do a light rail, but keep hitting roadblocks with politics. I spent a lot of time in NashVegas a few years ago. The highways around downtown are really congested and gridlocked at peak times.

I know people who have worked for Amazon in Columbus, OH and they state that the location of major highways is important to distribution so when I look at Nashville, I see 3 major highways here.

image

Similar to Columbus’s 2 I guess.

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They have a “starter” commuter rail line too. http://www.musiccitystar.org/

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True, but I never actually saw it running while I was in town. :slight_smile:

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Nashville is located well for various logistics purposes with interstate highways and freight rail, as well as being in Central time zone. A whole host of distributions centers exist within its hinterlands.

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My understanding of the Nashville announcement is that it is for oversight of its retail operations, rather than a distribution center. More office-related rather than physical product distribution.

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Aah, well then. Maybe office space is cheaper. :hushed: