KCRag Forum

Submit your AMZ HQ2 ideas to ThinkKC...

http://thinkkc.com/business/amazon-hq2-kc

There's some indication that AMZ likely to be interested in states with no income tax. MO would need to come up with something to offset it.

Interesting article from Chicago that it is "theirs to lose". They mention all the advantages Chicago offers. But no mention of where it could go. Where do you find a spot to build 8 million sq ft of office space there? I would think, like Seattle, they'd want to be downtown or an urban setting.

Downtowner wrote:Interesting article from Chicago that it is "theirs to lose". They mention all the advantages Chicago offers. But no mention of where it could go. Where do you find a spot to build 8 million sq ft of office space there? I would think, like Seattle, they'd want to be downtown or an urban setting.

right here: https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/5/15/15 ... ed-midwest

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I love the ideal of pursuing Amazon but it might be a case of being careful what you wish for. 50,000 new jobs landing in KC overnight would put a lot of stress on just about every part of the KC economy. Housing costs would skyrocket and a lot of crap would be put up quickly. The local service and medical community would be stretched etc... These issues would eventually become non issues but there would be a few severe growing pains.

I thought the same at first, but 50,000 is their high-end cap for what they might add over 15+ years. Even when you account for spinoff jobs and non-working family members, it still doesn't excede the level of growth that cities like Las Vegas sustained over a similar period of time. And KC isn't hurting for development sites. If housing costs go up by 10% you can count on there being an immediate construction boom to fix the supply issue.

I think around Along US-71, southeast of downtown would be ideal area to redevelop. There are tons of vacant lots, easy to buy out the cheap remaining buildings on some of those blocks and rezone one of the areas I marked with the big red circle. I think 31st/71 would be the idea spot for the revitalization, bridging the troost line with development, and 31st is the natural street for an east/west light rail/streetcar extention.

Also, 50k workers will generate a lot of traffic, so I have shown how 31st street can be connected to I-35 for JOCO workers, I-70 for east side workers, and it's on US-71 for northland/south KC workers. Street

for 31st, the red line is the road extention to the highways, and the black line is east/west streetcar line.


The area around 22nd/Paseo is downtown adjacent and extremely vacant with a ton of potential.

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shinatoo wrote:

aknowledgeableperson wrote:As the saying goes Kansas City has as much chance of getting this Amazon project as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

You're right, lets not even try.

Bidding on moon shot projects like this teach you nothing about yourself. There is nothing learned from the introspection involved in self-promotion, or the analytics you run in self-evaluation. Always better not to dream because then you will never be disappointed. And if the worst thing is that if you come close to winning, like making a semi-final round, you will never gain the attention of any other possible companies that might not have considered you in the past. Shut it down people.

&

I didn't say don't try. Just making a comment on the chances.

Phase One. 1.5 Million Sqft Office + 700-1500 apartments + Parking.

Step 1. Build a 500L Sqft Office Tower for 2019 Occupancy (Dark Blue), Build the "Main Street Garage"

Step 2. Build the 1 Million Sqft Light Blue Tower, Build the 2 greenish apartment towers/w parking in base.

The parking garages would be built to allow conversion to other uses once i70 is built over with parking garages. In order to keep up with Amazon's 2019 target date, we would have to start building garages before I think we would be able to close i70. By waiting, This also gives us more time if we decided to build rail through the i70 hole as well as more time and flexibility to deal with Broadway.

ldai_phs wrote:

Phase One. 1.5 Million Sqft Office + 700-1500 apartments + Parking.

Step 1. Build a 500L Sqft Office Tower for 2019 Occupancy (Dark Blue), Build the "Main Street Garage"

Step 2. Build the 1 Million Sqft Light Blue Tower, Build the 2 greenish apartment towers/w parking in base.

The parking garages would be built to allow conversion to other uses once i70 is built over with parking garages. In order to keep up with Amazon's 2019 target date, we would have to start building garages before I think we would be able to close i70. By waiting, This also gives us more time if we decided to build rail through the i70 hole as well as more time and flexibility to deal with Broadway.

Ugh yes, please.

JBmidtown wrote:

ldai_phs wrote:

Phase One. 1.5 Million Sqft Office + 700-1500 apartments + Parking.

Step 1. Build a 500L Sqft Office Tower for 2019 Occupancy (Dark Blue), Build the "Main Street Garage"

Step 2. Build the 1 Million Sqft Light Blue Tower, Build the 2 greenish apartment towers/w parking in base.

The parking garages would be built to allow conversion to other uses once i70 is built over with parking garages. In order to keep up with Amazon's 2019 target date, we would have to start building garages before I think we would be able to close i70. By waiting, This also gives us more time if we decided to build rail through the i70 hole as well as more time and flexibility to deal with Broadway.

Ugh yes, please.

There's more
Does anyone know someone I can talk to about my ideas at Think KC or the Economic Development Coouncil?

The north loop - imagine if we had the foresight and energy to have eliminated that monstrosity 5 years ago.
Amazon could easily build a dense urban campus complex in the 30-35 acres it would free up.

The East Village may be better for KC.
There is still plenty of infill lots available to the east and south for residential projects.

In this particular situation (Amazon2), open land is better than actually having spec office space available.
The city has to do something ASAP with that north loop regardless of the Amazon decision.
Had we done something 5 years ago....if only.

How about the Bendix site?

"We have a legit shot,” he said. “The process for this RFI Response will not take the average route. It will require a uniquely creative and aggressive approach in technical workforce development, as well as space, city transit, financial incentives, educational assets, cultural amenities, air transportation and more.” - Cowden

City Transit= Light Rail??
Air Tranist= Private Jet Terminal for Amazon or Special Lounges ?

NorthOak wrote:The north loop - imagine if we had the foresight and energy to have eliminated that monstrosity 5 years ago.
Amazon could easily build a dense urban campus complex in the 30-35 acres it would free up.

The East Village may be better for KC.
There is still plenty of infill lots available to the east and south for residential projects.

In this particular situation (Amazon2), open land is better than actually having spec office space available.
The city has to do something ASAP with that north loop regardless of the Amazon decision.
Had we done something 5 years ago....if only.

I think I said somewhere that the best thing that will come out of this is a strategic business and transit plan for two different areas for downtown KC. It's too bad most all big KC companies are shit.

Best quote from brookings.edu article:

Before communities go all in, they should think about who will ultimately win. Amazon has set the table in a way that ensures that just about every community that plays this game will lose, and not just because all but one place will come away without the grand prize. Many elected officials and economic development professionals will work tirelessly over the upcoming weeks and months to put together the most competitive bids their public coffers will permit. They will do this at a time when the country and many of these places face very real economic and social challenges that will not change that much from Amazon’s expansion, all on the hope for growth that is destined to happen somewhere, but probably not there. Meanwhile, one very unlucky place that ultimately ties the knot with Amazon will pay dearly for something it probably could have gotten for free.

hartliss wrote:Best quote from brookings.edu article:

Before communities go all in, they should think about who will ultimately win. Amazon has set the table in a way that ensures that just about every community that plays this game will lose, and not just because all but one place will come away without the grand prize. Many elected officials and economic development professionals will work tirelessly over the upcoming weeks and months to put together the most competitive bids their public coffers will permit. They will do this at a time when the country and many of these places face very real economic and social challenges that will not change that much from Amazon’s expansion, all on the hope for growth that is destined to happen somewhere, but probably not there. Meanwhile, one very unlucky place that ultimately ties the knot with Amazon will pay dearly for something it probably could have gotten for free.

That will be true if they end up going with Chicago or Altanta. If that is the case, we will realize that they had the city picked from the beginning, and this was just a race to the bottom/publicity stunt. They would give billions in incentives and Amazon would not make a huge difference in their economy.

It would be a little different if they came here. There would be some growing pains and other problems, but the stuff we've mentioned here (light rail, north loop removal) would be a huge benefit to Kansas City. We would still probably give them lots of incentives and tax breaks, but because Kansas City is smaller, Amazon would have a bigger impact on our economy and growth, and would probably help attract other companies that would've dismissed KC out of hand.

There's no sure thing that the site being pitched is downtown. Sure, it's what most of us want, but this is a regional effort and even though Amazon prefers an urban setting in Seattle doesn't mean it's a stipulation for the new HQ. The Research Triangle in North Carolina is hardly urban, and their commuter rail isn't scheduled to be complete for a long time. But they are probably on everyone's top 10 lists.

Who knows - with the political climate in Kansas the way it is, Kansas may demand a suburban location if they're going to provide any incentives.

We need to also be sure to consider pitching the caves as a potential for Amazon Web Services (as a backup data center). They could save some serious cash on cooling their data centers if they had them in the caves. Only helps that we're on one of the major fiber optic spines, they could really expand their presence. Considering that AWS is the cash cow for Amazon, it would only help our pitch. I'm sure Hunt Midwest could put together a nice package.