Will Amazon choose Irvine?

[AW]

local LA times take on it:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-headquarters-20170907-story.html

couple interesting excerpts:
...
Amazon is now soliciting bids for the project and said it would give priority to areas with more than 1 million people that are within 45 minutes of an international airport.

In addition, ?a highly educated labor pool is critical and a strong university system is required? in the area, Amazon said
...
The company asked bidders to identify state and local incentives available, including tax credits and utility incentives.
...
At first glance, Los Angeles and Orange counties would appear to be viable candidates: They have a large available workforce, nearby airports, nearby universities and access to the West Coast ports, which are among the busiest in the nation.

Amazon also has nine sprawling fulfillment centers in California, including five in the Inland Empire, and earlier this year, it announced plans to build two new centers, in Redlands and in Eastvale, near Riverside.

The company also has a film and television production arm, Amazon Studios, based in Santa Monica.
...
One downside might be that Amazon may not want both of its headquarters on the West Coast. L.A.?s high housing costs also may work against it.
...
Does L.A. stand a chance?

?Too expensive ? it doesn?t solve anything,? Pachter said. ?I personally think this is more about housing than anything else. So Riverside makes more sense than L.A. Or Bakersfield. But you couldn?t pay me to live there.?

 

[riznick]

  There are plenty of horror stories from ex-employees, but I can understand the company has to be ruthless to stay alive in that field.

I hear that Amazon has a very high turn around with it's "high wage" workers. 

I think companies see that employees have Amazon on their resume and are quick to pay an even higher wage. 

 

[Liar Loan]

  There are plenty of horror stories from ex-employees, but I can understand the company has to be ruthless to stay alive in that field.

I hear that Amazon has a very high turn around with it's "high wage" workers. 

I think companies see that employees have Amazon on their resume and are quick to pay an even higher wage.

I've been recruited by the Amazon location in Irvine in the past, but the reputation of a cutthroat environment does not excite me at all.  I'll stick with the mortgage biz thank you very much.

 

[iacrenter]

  There are plenty of horror stories from ex-employees, but I can understand the company has to be ruthless to stay alive in that field.

I hear that Amazon has a very high turn around with it's "high wage" workers. 

I think companies see that employees have Amazon on their resume and are quick to pay an even higher wage.

I've been recruited by the Amazon location in Irvine in the past, but the reputation of a cutthroat environment does not excite me at all.  I'll stick with the mortgage biz thank you very much.

Here is the infamous expose on Amazon work conditions by the NY Times in 2015:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/...stling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

 

[Hugo Township]

No chance unless there is major eminent domain, or some kind of mega mixed use of the scale that has not been seen before. Irvine's infrastructure is not scaleable upwards because of its car dependency and lack of credible options. Some architecture undergrad will probably design for a class project a 30k mixed use high density city in the ex-MCAS Tustin that technically fits, and that would be fantastic, but that kind of central top-down cohesive planning is just not seen in the US.

I find it amazing that people will cry about greedy developers building new homes and creating traffic, while welcoming mega-employers with thousands of new jobs. Those new jobs will be filled with people who commute into your city.

 

[AW]

I find it amazing that people will cry about greedy developers building new homes and creating traffic, while welcoming mega-employers with thousands of new jobs. Those new jobs will be filled with people who commute into your city.

It's about $$$, like winning lotto if you own property here. Price rise like the Bay Area. Sell and retire!!

 

[Hugo Township]

Sure. But what if you don't want to move? Increases property tax (slowly), cost of living, makes it harder to hire employees, makes income inequality worse, increases number of commuters, etc.

 

[AW]

Sure, no need to move. 
Just do a cash out refi or take out heloc because your ltv just changed.
I don't know of anyone who doesn't want their home value to increase

 

[Hugo Township]

Sure, no need to move. 
Just do a cash out refi or take out heloc because your ltv just changed.
I don't know of anyone who doesn't want their home value to increase

It's possible to appreciate that you'd want your home price to increase, while still realizing that housing unaffordability in Irvine hampers economic growth.

 

[iacrenter]

Guess where Donald Bren thinks the Amazon HQ should be?
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/07/prime-real-estate-amazon-opens-search-for-2nd-hq/

Donald Bren at Irvine Company makes rare, public pitch for Amazon?s 2nd headquarters

When the titan of e-commerce said it needed a second headquarters, an Orange County titan of real estate said come on down.

Donald Bren, the owner and chairman of the Irvine Company issued a rare statement Thursday after Amazon said it was on the hunt for another base of operations in North America.

?We are uniquely qualified to meet Amazon?s needs,? Bren said in a statement to the Register.

The Irvine Co. will work with Irvine officials to identify specific plans and locations, company spokesman Scott Starkey said.

Amazon has a few must-haves: A prime location, close to transit, with plenty of space to grow.

Irvine officials believe the city would ?appear to be the perfect location.?

The city plans to submit a proposal to Amazon, though they don?t have a timeline yet.

City Manager Sean Joyce became aware of ?this intriguing opportunity today,? city spokesman Craig Reem said. Joyce has assigned staff to create a proposal, Reem said, but added ?there is a lot of work ahead.?

The city, Reem said, would still have to explore where to build the headquarters.


?Irvine is nimble and innovative and ready to leverage our changing economy,? Councilwoman Melissa Fox said.

Amazon said Thursday it will spend more than $5 billion to build another headquarters in North America to house as many as 50,000 employees. It plans to stay in its sprawling Seattle headquarters and the new space will be ?a full equal? of its current home, said founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Irvine will have to compete with the like of Los Angeles. Officials there said the city also is planning to bid on the project.

The e-commerce giant has a significant presence in Southern California with warehouses and distributions scattered from Irvine to Moreno Valley. Logistics here also might be favorable with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and cargo airports in Ontario and at LAX.

Amazon?s announcement highlights how fast the company is expanding and is certain to create a scramble among cities and states vying to make the short list. They have a little more than a month to apply through a special website, and the company said it will make a final decision next year.

It didn?t hint about where it might land, but its requirements could rule out some places: It wants to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and wants to be able to expand that headquarters to as much as 8 million square feet in the next decade. That?s about the same size as its current home in Seattle. Co-headquarters, though, often come about as a result of mergers.

Amazon said its search is open to any metropolitan area in North America that meets the parameters ? the city itself doesn?t necessarily have to be a million people ? but declined to say how open it was to building outside the U.S.

?We want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit,? the company said on its search website, about why it was choosing its second headquarters through a public process.

Bezos has crowdsourced major decisions before ? in June, just before Amazon announced its plan to buy organic grocer Whole Foods, the billionaire took to Twitter seeking ideas for a philanthropic strategy to give away some of his fortune. And tech companies have been known to set places in competition with each other: In vying to land Google?s ultra-fast broadband network, many cities used stunts and gimmickry to get the company?s attention. Topeka even informally renamed itself ?Google, Kansas.?

In just the last month, Amazon announced plans to build three new warehouses that pack and ship packages in New York, Ohio and Oregon. And it recently paid close to $14 billion for Whole Foods and its more than 465 stores. The company plans to hire 100,000 people by the middle of next year, adding to its current worldwide staff of more than 380,000.

Amazon?s current campus in Seattle takes up 8.1 million square feet, has 33 buildings and 24 restaurants and is home to more than 40,000 employees. At the second headquarters, Amazon said it will hire up to 50,000 new full-time employees over the next 15 years who would have an average pay of more than $100,000 a year.

Amazon?s website about the search lauds the benefits it can bring to a community. And Amazon?s arrival could transform an area: Until 10 years ago, the neighborhood near Seattle?s campus just north of downtown was dotted with auto parts stores and low-rent apartments. Now the area is a booming pocket of high-rise office complexes, sleek apartment buildings and tony restaurants.

Amazon?s rise has not been without local critics, who say the influx of mostly well-heeled tech workers has caused housing prices to skyrocket, clogged the streets with traffic and changed the city for the worse. The Seattle Times reported Thursday that the median price for a house in August in Seattle was $730,000, up almost 17 percent in a year.

Staff writer Tomoya Shimura contributed to this report.

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Guess where Donald Bren thinks the Amazon HQ should be?
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/07/prime-real-estate-amazon-opens-search-for-2nd-hq/

Donald Bren at Irvine Company makes rare, public pitch for Amazon?s 2nd headquarters

When the titan of e-commerce said it needed a second headquarters, an Orange County titan of real estate said come on down.

Donald Bren, the owner and chairman of the Irvine Company issued a rare statement Thursday after Amazon said it was on the hunt for another base of operations in North America.

?We are uniquely qualified to meet Amazon?s needs,? Bren said in a statement to the Register.

The Irvine Co. will work with Irvine officials to identify specific plans and locations, company spokesman Scott Starkey said.

Amazon has a few must-haves: A prime location, close to transit, with plenty of space to grow.

Irvine officials believe the city would ?appear to be the perfect location.?

The city plans to submit a proposal to Amazon, though they don?t have a timeline yet.

City Manager Sean Joyce became aware of ?this intriguing opportunity today,? city spokesman Craig Reem said. Joyce has assigned staff to create a proposal, Reem said, but added ?there is a lot of work ahead.?

The city, Reem said, would still have to explore where to build the headquarters.


?Irvine is nimble and innovative and ready to leverage our changing economy,? Councilwoman Melissa Fox said.

Amazon said Thursday it will spend more than $5 billion to build another headquarters in North America to house as many as 50,000 employees. It plans to stay in its sprawling Seattle headquarters and the new space will be ?a full equal? of its current home, said founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Irvine will have to compete with the like of Los Angeles. Officials there said the city also is planning to bid on the project.

The e-commerce giant has a significant presence in Southern California with warehouses and distributions scattered from Irvine to Moreno Valley. Logistics here also might be favorable with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and cargo airports in Ontario and at LAX.

Amazon?s announcement highlights how fast the company is expanding and is certain to create a scramble among cities and states vying to make the short list. They have a little more than a month to apply through a special website, and the company said it will make a final decision next year.

It didn?t hint about where it might land, but its requirements could rule out some places: It wants to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and wants to be able to expand that headquarters to as much as 8 million square feet in the next decade. That?s about the same size as its current home in Seattle. Co-headquarters, though, often come about as a result of mergers.

Amazon said its search is open to any metropolitan area in North America that meets the parameters ? the city itself doesn?t necessarily have to be a million people ? but declined to say how open it was to building outside the U.S.

?We want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit,? the company said on its search website, about why it was choosing its second headquarters through a public process.

Bezos has crowdsourced major decisions before ? in June, just before Amazon announced its plan to buy organic grocer Whole Foods, the billionaire took to Twitter seeking ideas for a philanthropic strategy to give away some of his fortune. And tech companies have been known to set places in competition with each other: In vying to land Google?s ultra-fast broadband network, many cities used stunts and gimmickry to get the company?s attention. Topeka even informally renamed itself ?Google, Kansas.?

In just the last month, Amazon announced plans to build three new warehouses that pack and ship packages in New York, Ohio and Oregon. And it recently paid close to $14 billion for Whole Foods and its more than 465 stores. The company plans to hire 100,000 people by the middle of next year, adding to its current worldwide staff of more than 380,000.

Amazon?s current campus in Seattle takes up 8.1 million square feet, has 33 buildings and 24 restaurants and is home to more than 40,000 employees. At the second headquarters, Amazon said it will hire up to 50,000 new full-time employees over the next 15 years who would have an average pay of more than $100,000 a year.

Amazon?s website about the search lauds the benefits it can bring to a community. And Amazon?s arrival could transform an area: Until 10 years ago, the neighborhood near Seattle?s campus just north of downtown was dotted with auto parts stores and low-rent apartments. Now the area is a booming pocket of high-rise office complexes, sleek apartment buildings and tony restaurants.

Amazon?s rise has not been without local critics, who say the influx of mostly well-heeled tech workers has caused housing prices to skyrocket, clogged the streets with traffic and changed the city for the worse. The Seattle Times reported Thursday that the median price for a house in August in Seattle was $730,000, up almost 17 percent in a year.

Staff writer Tomoya Shimura contributed to this report.

When Mr. Bren speak, it's worth listening to. He is making a case for Amazon to consider at Irvine. The two new towers at Spectrum. The used to be Broadcom campus. All are still under development and 70% completed. The work force and talents pool in SoCal is abundant. From executives to high tech resources.

 

[lnc]

Kudos to Donald Bren for his efforts . Besides City of Irvine, TIC also need the State to come up with some sort of tax incentive to lure Amazon HQ to CA.  Still very unlikely though.

 

[freedomcm]

I'm guessing Chicago

Though a split campus, half on the US side (Detroit, Buffalo), and half on the Canadian side (London, Niagra Falls) would solve their foreign talent problems

 

[AW]

Based on what they're looking for, Chicago makes more sense than Detroit. 

Wonder if Bren's pitch excluded 5P's GP commercial and residential properties, just TIC. Haha

 

[eyephone]

I'm guessing Chicago

Though a split campus, half on the US side (Detroit, Buffalo), and half on the Canadian side (London, Niagra Falls) would solve their foreign talent problems

Chicago leads the nation in homocides according to a Washington Post article I just read.
(There's crime everywhere, but leading the nation in killings should be a factor)

 

[jmoney74]

The only thing holding Cali back is Cali.

 

[Liar Loan]

Cook County (Chicago) also has the highest population loss of any county in the US.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/cook-county-has-largest-population-loss-of-any-county-in-the-u-s/

 

[potsticker]

It's interesting...if a company wants to be HQ'd in California - they will be in CA. In the bay area, off the top of my head, I can think of Google and Salesforce. Both of these companies do not get much in the form of tax breaks from the city or state, but they continue to invest. Google is building a new campus in downtown San Jose to employ 20k workers. Salesforce is close to completing Salesforce Tower to increase their SF-based employee count to nearly 15k workers.

If companies want to invest in California, they will do so regardless of the bottom line. That said, Amazon's "thrifty-ness" has been well documented. I would love to see Amazon in Irvine - it'll increase housing prices like crazy and you'll even see surrounding cities like Santa Ana, Fullerton, and Anaheim thrive (see Oakland and the East Bay in the bay area). Realistically, I see their new HQ going to Texas or Vegas...

 

[morekaos]

The only thing holding Cali back is Cali.

That, Governor moon beam, and the entire California Government.  This stands NO chance, even with the Donald (Bren) behind it.

 

[jmoney74]

It's interesting...if a company wants to be HQ'd in California - they will be in CA. In the bay area, off the top of my head, I can think of Google and Salesforce. Both of these companies do not get much in the form of tax breaks from the city or state, but they continue to invest. Google is building a new campus in downtown San Jose to employ 20k workers. Salesforce is close to completing Salesforce Tower to increase their SF-based employee count to nearly 15k workers.

If companies want to invest in California, they will do so regardless of the bottom line. That said, Amazon's "thrifty-ness" has been well documented. I would love to see Amazon in Irvine - it'll increase housing prices like crazy and you'll even see surrounding cities like Santa Ana, Fullerton, and Anaheim thrive (see Oakland and the East Bay in the bay area). Realistically, I see their new HQ going to Texas or Vegas...

Can't see Vegas. They want a robust university system. High quality cheaper young labor.