Amazon searching for second HQ

[flyingember]

There's empty lots off admiral down That part of the east side that overlooks downtown. The name escapes me

A single block in Paseo Industrial is about 4.25 acres.

Need 23 of them.

[flyingember]

Is North Loop acreage including the lots near 8th/Wyandotte E of Phoenix Bar? And will they really need 100 acres if doing 70+ story buildings?

If you take the North Loop Broadway to Charlotte and every empty lot north of 9th between Central and Walnut it's about 50 acres.

Can gain another 20-25 from the east village.

One major possibility is to straddle the east side of the loop. Take the 20-25 acres from the east village and start relocating from Paseo Industrial and take most of it. A large campus from Tracey to Cherry could work. By pushing towards the east side it makes the city look receptive to jobs needs there, would easily get a citywide streetcar election to pass if it means connecting to 50k new downtown jobs. the east side alone would make it pass

it also would help majorly push up redoing the stupid ramp setup on the east side of the loop

[KCPowercat]

I've made a huge mistake

[tower]

Is North Loop acreage including the lots near 8th/Wyandotte E of Phoenix Bar? And will they really need 100 acres if doing 70+ story buildings?

Probably. They won't all be 70+ stories. Looking at the Seattle campus, it's about 98 acres. It is actually two campuses though, one at South Union Lake, and one a couple blocks south. They would probably be willing split it like that at a new campus too. It would be almost impossible to find a contiguous 100 acres near downtown in any city, especially a bigger one,which is what they will probably end up going with.

[kas1]

100 acres was only for greenfield sites. For infill sites they didn't specify anything.

[pash]

.

[shinatoo]

Stop construction on the riverfront. That land plus the Harlem area connected by a honkey tube over the river. Rename the Missouri the "Amazon.com River".

Right next to an airport for the executives to use. Promise to build rail to KCI.

Boom.

[WoodDraw]

Stop construction on the riverfront. That land plus the Harlem area connected by a honkey tube over the river. Rename the Missouri the "Amazon.com River".

Right next to an airport for the executives to use. Promise to build rail to KCI.

Boom.

But where would all of our sex offenders live?

[shinatoo]

Stop construction on the riverfront. That land plus the Harlem area connected by a honkey tube over the river. Rename the Missouri the "Amazon.com River".

Right next to an airport for the executives to use. Promise to build rail to KCI.

Boom.

But where would all of our sex offenders live?

We could build a new Craigslist HQ too.

[bobbyhawks]

I don't think the reason for their airport requirements has to do with executive flights. It is more likely related to all of the salespeople, marketing, technical solutions providers, etc., who are not high up enough to command a private jet. They will need varied flights to many international destinations, and we have a very long way to go in that department. If we are serious about getting them, we need to let them weigh in on the new airport design and consider giving up management or a portion of management to the Wheeler airport. Most likely, we have no chance due to the airport alone and could only hope to be used as a bargaining chip.

[WoodDraw]

Could you do a private terminal at downtown airport? Plus new international airport in 2021. They could brand the hell out of it. What city has a new airport they could take over in a republican state? Offer them free land north to do distribution.

Then north and east downtown to build out with the promise of transport upgrades.

I can't figure out what they want here. I'd pick Austin or Denver, but I hope we make a big push. At worst, its future planning for the city.

[WoodDraw]

Also, since they're starting their own airline, could we offer them anything at downtown or new kci for cargo?

[JBmidtown]

No taxes for 1000 years and also free land anywhere in the city and also every day at noon workers will leave their offices and pray to a giant, gold statue of Jeff Bezos in the East Village.

[WoodDraw]

No taxes for 1000 years and also free land anywhere in the city and also every day at noon workers will leave their offices and pray to a giant, gold statue of Jeff Bezos in the East Village.

No, I think the east village developers are *just* about to pull off their development plan. I'd much rather the city continue to give away land to them.

This isn't a sports stadium. If there is any chance they can pull this off, it'd change the city. I'd offer massive incentives because it could change multiple parts of downtown and the airport for a generation.

[WoodDraw]

Plus, as hard as Amazon works their employees, we might finally get some late night dining am I right

[normalthings]

We gave Cerner 1.75 Billion in incentives for a 4.45 billion dollar project set to create 16k jobs. Amazon wants to spend 5 billion to create 50k jobs. A quick google search shows that Amazon engineers and managers make a good bit over 100k ( I understand this won't be all jobs). I think it is safe to say that many jobs will be higherpaying based though. Lets say 30k of the 50K make 100,000 a year and the rest make 60,000 a year. In the first year with all 50,000 employed, the cities earnings tax would raise 42,000,000 million in the first year. I think this estimate is potentially somewhat conservative.

30K x 100K + 20k x 60k = 4,200,000,000. 4.2 Billion in yearly salaries added to KC. 4.2 Billion to spend on apartments in the Cordish Wall. 4.2 Billion to spend on flights from our airport. 4.2 Billion to spend at the plaza, on gas, at a local diner, the grocery store, etc.

Yet I don't believe Tax Incentives are the way to go. What we need instead is improvements to infrastructure. Our 2 critical missing links are a NEW KCI and a Rail Transit System.

A mix of dedicated right of way light rail, street running light rail, and maybe even commuter rail could be built.

I envision a dedicated row light rail backbone running from below Amazon's New Towers in the North Loop Through the new residential or Amazon developments in the East Village that merge into the center lane of US 71 Highway. Currently, the median is about 50 ft wide. Chicago's median running trains use about 43 feet along most of their routes except at stations that use 70 ish feet.

Image 1 in Red shows Potential Dedicated ROW Light Rail. The streetcar(yellow) is expanded down main South of the Plaza. Additional Streetcar Routes would Cris cross east and west across the city connecting to the main street streetcar and the US 71 Light Rail. In Theory, Streetcars would feed into the Main Street Line and the LIght Rail.







I really think that without some sort of plane that deals with improving transit, we can't win. While this plan would cost in the billions, so too would the incentives that we would otherwise give to this group. We could offset risk by building out the system in increments as Amazon builds out their HQ.

[flyingember]

Related to this rail plan, direct incentives might not be the strongest position.

Imagine if instead the city said they will provide a stress free option so workers can exit on their doorstep via transit. The city promises to install more rail each year for 10 years to some minimum size. Any major campus won't be built out in a year so a paired build out could work.

[Downtowner]

Good point on the $ this would bring the region. Transport is a definite concern for a KC bid. But it would kill Austin's chances. Austin is a traffic nightmare. 2 million people, 1 Highway! They voted down lightrail. It was voted as worse traffic than LA. Imagine KC with just I-35. And the cost of living there is out of reach. Downtown condos now avg $634 sq ft. I think KC would be an intriguing choice for them. We're on the cusp of qualifying and they could move the city to these levels of light rail. I'm looking at other candidates and everyone has their drawbacks. Dallas seems likely but traffic has reached a fever pitch everywhere. And no space available in an urban setting. They'd have to go to a far suburb. I mean who wants to live in Plano? Chicago brings up a space issue also. Nothing urban but great airport. Denver would seem likeliest competitor - lots of tech, transportation, good airport. It loses on price of real estate as well. Mpls is too cold. So I think it's a Denver/Dallas/KC race. All centrally located. Can KC make a better sell?

[earthling]

Would make sense to include some form of a rail strategy with the proposal that parallels Amazon's growth. And while bus isn't ideal, the City should strongly pursue 'free' bus service tactically as has been discussed in other threads.

Good article on case it may be a major city... Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, DC...
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... al-to-lose

Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta seem like a no brainer, maybe Denver. Relatively cheaper to operate than the coasts, major logistic centers, major airports, large tech workforce, better transit than smaller markets. They are probably already thinking of these cities and will use bids from others as leverage for where they really want to be. But KC definitely should go for it. If KC even makes the long list and then declined, the local opponents to improving KCs infrastructure may respond to the wake up call.

[wahoowa]

Plus, as hard as Amazon works their employees, we might finally get some late night dining am I right

YES