Ok Buck, thanks, appreciative of the info.
Most important decision this week (due to Amazon stringing this out), who OUR Carolina Hurricanes select at #2 in Friday night NHL draft,
Andrei Svechnikov is the man (funny, he is 18)!!
Go Canes.
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I’m thinking Raleigh has a very good chance of being selected for HQ2. Amazon’s plan as I understand it is to build out HQ2 over a period of 10 years making the concern of our metro area being too small a moot point. In fact, our smaller size may very work as an advantage because future growth can be managed far more effectively here than in larger congested metros where infrastructure has already been frozen into place.
Clearly Amazon believes the problems in Seattle, as related to their corporate growth, are intractable so why would Amazon choose to set up shop in an already expensive, congested, and built-out city only to face (and be blamed) for the very same problems again? I read the other day that Amazon is expected to name 3 finalist cities within the next couple of months. Let’s see if Raleigh isn’t named to this select group.
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In two months list of 20 being reduced to 5 cities.
My opinion: 2 DC locations should be removed (one will be in final 5) LA will be removed, Denver out, Indianapolis out, I think Atlanta should be removed, cannot trust state politicians after what they did to Delta, the largest employer in state and home grown company, pulling annual tax incentives (or making the effort to do that), what do you think they will do to Amazon in future, they are not a home grown company Chicago gone, Dallas out, Philly out, Columbus out, Newark our, Toronto out, Miami out
My 5:
Raleigh
NYC
Nashville
One DC
Austin
My 5:
Raleigh
Toronto
Nashville
One DC
Austin
I could see them doing a top 10 then a top five or three just to attempt to sweeten the pot
My 5
Raleigh
Pittsburgh
Nashville
DC
Atlanta
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Actually a few articles have read it will be down to 3 cities in two months.
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Other than my excitement for Canes draft party this Friday, US Army selecting HQ location by end of next week.
And I heard there is a NC government announcement June 26th, possibly pertaining to Apple.
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That will be interesting if Amazon buys SAS!!
FWIW
Why not offer the Central Prison site to Amazon now - nothing to brainstorm about 
It’s an eyesore and relocation could be in the benefit for all involved.
Spring hill is a tad too far from DT in my opinion. Alternatively the parking lots in front off performing arts center, Mc Donald’s and co
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Because the lots you mentioned simply don’t have enough space. 8 million Sq Ft is like six Bank of America (Charlotte) towers, and there’s no way we’re getting six 800 ft buildings. FWIW, I know other locations aren’t in the CBD. In Boston the site is only halfway in Boston city limits.
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81 acres of Central Prison and Morehead School seems big enough. Indy is proposing a 100 acre site near downtown of a former GM stamping plant. NCSU’s Spring Hill is 130 acres for comparison
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Sorry, I thought central prison was a joke. I agree, it would be enough but there’s no way that’s happening. I would LOVE if it did though.
I think Spring Hill feels a bit far right now, but eventually, with or without Amazon, it will expand into it’s own urban neighborhood.
This is Amazon guys, they’re wiling to spend $10 billion to develop their HQ2. $10 billion is not a lot of money in Boston or Atlanta but a tremendous amount here and that’s why we’re still in the running. The past 18 years barely $2.2 billion has been invested in Downtown Raleigh. If they decide to pick Raleigh they won’t care about any of our opinions–they have $10 freaking billion dollars. The Convention Center pathetic? They’ll demo it with the promise to build a world class one with a proper hotel on top of it. Duke Energy Center? Pathetic. How about an award-winning new Amazon-branded opera housed designed by Gehry? Probably not but they’ll make the city council work overtime with the amount of city-scaping they could potentially do.
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The convention center isn’t pathetic; it also isn’t completed. The current amphitheater is held as such until the convention center needs expansion. In that expansion, large halls can be created and a hotel could certainly be integrated. Speaking of hotels, I can imagine the Marriott actually being replaced in the future with something more substantial.
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The scale of Jeff Bezos’ wealth is truly astounding. The RFP for HQ2 pledged an investment of $5B (plus 50k jobs) over 10 years I believe. This led 238 metro areas to clamor for Amazon’s favor and attention. Total investment in our downtown over 18 years has been 2.2B per @Francisco.
Jeff Bezos has a net worth of 141B! The following article, published a while back, puts this amazing statistic into better perspective. According to the analysis Jeff Bezos could purchase ALL active residential listings in Raleigh for cash 42 times over. Even in the NY metro area he could do this 3 times over. Grouping the listings for all 19 U.S. finalist cities together Jeff would be able to purchase more than 1/2 of them. Wow, just wow!
P.S. - In the article the analysis was based on his net worth at the time (112B as of May 14th). Today it’s a jaw-dropping 141B for a gain of 743M per day. Not a bad day’s work Jeff, not bad at all!
So flush away the existing people and institutions?..and you’re inviting them in? They might as well set up shop in a corn field if their plan is to re-do everything. And if it is, F 'em. And Memorial Auditorium/Fletcher/Meymandi/Kennedy is great for the current size of Raleigh. If it ends up being our Carolina Theater to some future DPAC, then so be it. The efforts it takes to create, and maintain the viability of a place like Memorial shouldn’t be called “pathetic”. If Raleigh had no performing arts center and a general lack of arts and culture, then we’d be off the Amazon list already. If Amazon ends up here I hope they appreciate and enhance the organic nature of all that is here currently…is this not the general baseline criteria of their search?..a relatively cool place where they and the existing City can grow together and make each other better?
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I don’t even know if this is an issue tbh. Amazon isn’t going to come in here and start building things for the common good. They’re going to build things for Amazon. If they see utility in spaces like a convention center or concert hall, they’re more likely to lobby the city and state to build these and if they don’t get them, they’ll build it on their own but it won’t be for the public at large to use.
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JosABanks gets it. And with Amazon money almost all the private properties in DTR can be on sale.
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