Ottawa strikes task force in bid to woo Amazon

Bosses must figuring out how to split up employees and departments so they can collaborate effectively from thousands of miles away. “They’re looking for eight million square feet, that’s the whole Seaport”. Yet for all their benefits and buzz, digital jobs continue to geographically concentrate in established high-tech meccas at a time when our nation needs more metro areas, especially in the heartland, to gain a competitive foothold in the digital future.

Her answer: “One might speculate it could have to do with the city of Seattle’s increasingly aggressive and strident anti-business policies and attitude toward the city’s employers”.

Earlier today Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the company was looking to build a second North American headquarters on par with its headquarters in Seattle where the housing and talent markets are saturated.

So, Cunningham said, the LVEDC is already developing its proposal and has reached out to developers to see who is interested in being involved in the pitch to Amazon. If you’re a city, it’s a sexy project. “That interchange, 20 years ago, 30 years ago was a dream of Palmer Township”, he said. “Philadelphia should feel absolutely confident that it has something to offer a company like Amazon”. Amazon will spend about $5-billion on its new headquarters, and will employ about 50,000 people.

Shauna Brail, director of the University of Toronto’s urban studies program, said his home city appears to be the most suited of Canadian contenders.

Cities have until October 19 to apply through a special website, and Amazon said it will make a final decision on HQ2 next year.

The city recently increased the minimum wage and passed an income tax on high earners.

“I think we have a discussion in Seattle where the left tries to out-left the left and the left”, Murray said. New Jersey also has compelling development activity and is transit-oriented.

Amazon’s plan should boost its political leverage at a time when it is being blamed for the decline of brick-and-mortar retailers.

Finally, Feltz Wealth PLAN Inc. purchased a new position in Amazon.com during the first quarter valued at $180,000. According to a spokesman for DCED, the assistance remains contingent upon Amazon’s submitting final applications and meeting their commitments. “Amazon will want to be in a time zone farther east since they are now in Seattle”, says Grady Gammage Jr., co-founder and partner at Gammage and Burnham.

To lure a corporate headquarters, however, both state and local agencies would have to dangle a much larger incentive.

The center of the high-tech universe runs from San Francisco south to Silicon Valley, a region home to the largest base of software developers in the U.S.

Some other requirements are more than one million people, a stable and business friendly environment and a development prepped site that would be a similar layout to the Seattle Amazon campus. At full build-out, “the campus or park may exceed eight million square feet”, Amazon added.

In 2015, General Motors Co.’s luxury brand Cadillac uprooted from its Detroit base and moved its headquarters to a new space in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood to allow Cadillac to establish itself as a stand-alone business unit.

“I would be suspicious of any claim that one new Amazon job creates a rippled effect of one indirect job”, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of watchdog Good Jobs First. “It’s right on the freeway and there are hundreds of acres left for development”. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,552,000.

“Look at Port Richmond, at Bridesburg – there is a lot of land along the river”, said Councilman Allan Domb.

In cities across the country, people will look around and think about where they would put 50,000 tech workers, whether in enormous old buildings or brand-new construction.