Looks like NOVA won Amazon HQ

[Anonymous]

A little off topic: but why couldn't both Nova and Moco get Amazon HQ2?

This is the thing that kinda made me wonder about the whole DMV area getting three noninations: it doesn't seem too crazy to assume that all three "locations" would benefit if one landed the HQ2. (I find it hard to believe DC would land it outright because of property values and schools, but that's another discussion).

And what if they built a bridge between Western Moco and Sterling/Great Falls to circumvent the 495 clustereff traffic?

I am not a real estate pro or anything like that, but it just seems like regardless of where it goes in the DMV, we're all going to have to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Things are starting to align...

https://twitter.com/AndrewGiambrone/status/1024013478783328256

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A little off topic: but why couldn't both Nova and Moco get Amazon HQ2?

This is the thing that kinda made me wonder about the whole DMV area getting three noninations: it doesn't seem too crazy to assume that all three "locations" would benefit if one landed the HQ2. (I find it hard to believe DC would land it outright because of property values and schools, but that's another discussion).

And what if they built a bridge between Western Moco and Sterling/Great Falls to circumvent the 495 clustereff traffic?

I am not a real estate pro or anything like that, but it just seems like regardless of where it goes in the DMV, we're all going to have to deal with it.

Because DC/VA/MD are completely unable to get their shit together and cooperate on development. See also: metro. They tried and failed to come up with a region wide bid. So, coordinating things like tax incentives among three states would be a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things are starting to align...

https://twitter.com/AndrewGiambrone/status/1024013478783328256

So all those criteria about affordability and urban environment were bullshit? Amazon will move to a big suburban campus in NOVA and most of the workers will commute in from Ashburn?

Not surprised. It was always going to be about tax incentives at the end of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things are starting to align...

https://twitter.com/AndrewGiambrone/status/1024013478783328256

So all those criteria about affordability and urban environment were bullshit? Amazon will move to a big suburban campus in NOVA and most of the workers will commute in from Ashburn?

Not surprised. It was always going to be about tax incentives at the end of the day.

Where do you see NOVA vs DC or CC? But actually it will have metro, so senor execs will drive in from estates in Allie and millenial staff will metro in from urban residences.

[Anonymous]

Cake is baked. Put the candles on it. NOVA is the wise choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

[Anonymous]

Amazon job announcement: https://patch.com/virginia/oakton/s/ghbm4/new-dc-area-amazon-job-listing-creates-hq2-buzz?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_term=business&utm_campaign=autopost&utm_content=oakton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

IIUC DC still has plenty of under capacity schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

IIUC DC still has plenty of under capacity schools.

That no one wants to attend. Including the kids “attending” them 20% of the time and still “graduating”. Amazon does not pay enough to buy a House in DC and put your kid in private. And the commune into DC sucks from basically everywhere. Herndon/ Teston gets more affordable housing, good schools, plenty of land to develop, and a countercommute from DC. And the new silver line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

IIUC DC still has plenty of under capacity schools.

That no one wants to attend. Including the kids “attending” them 20% of the time and still “graduating”. Amazon does not pay enough to buy a House in DC and put your kid in private. And the commune into DC sucks from basically everywhere. Herndon/ Teston gets more affordable housing, good schools, plenty of land to develop, and a countercommute from DC. And the new silver line.

Yep. All this talk about wanting urban millennials or whatever the new generation and attracting those who preferred living in cities was always hot talk and never serious. Most of the engineers will be dull boys working 60 hour weeks for their 120k and living in townhouses in Ashburn. You think they'd pay 2.5k for a studio in the district and spending more than a hour getting to work on public transit? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

IIUC DC still has plenty of under capacity schools.

No one from Amazon is going to want to send their kids to Mayor Marion S. Barry Education Campus. It's upper Northwest or nothing.

[Anonymous]

Don’t get me wrong, I would love for the DC area to win the bid, and do think it is the likely choice. However, the purchase of 100 acres in that part of VA means NOTHING. Amazon Web Services (AWS) already has significant data centers out there, and plans to continue expansion. Given that AWS is the most profitable business unit of Amazon, the answer to all of this speculation could simply be tied to the expansion of that business unit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fingers crossed that this is true. We have a 3000 square foot house in Franklin Farms in Herndon. Zoned Carson MS/Chantilly HS. 10 minutes away from the CIT site. Kids are rising 9th and 11th. We could have Kid 1 out and Kid 2 nearly out of FCPS before the school aged population explodes. And a house in our location, with our school zoning should increase in value a lot (right now it is probably worth 700k). Right at the point where we would be in a position to sell and move to a closer in location where we don’t have to worry about ACPS or eastern FCPS or DCPS.

But not counting my chickens yet.

That said, the CIT location is perfect if you look at their RFP. 10 minutes from Dulles. New silver line stop set to open at their doorstep in 2020. Good FCPS/LCPS schools, with access to TJ and now AOS. 80% of the worlds internet traffic passes through the NOVA server farms. Housing is still relatively inexpensive. A decent amount of undeveloped land for new housing and retail. And a very Asian/ STEM career heavy population. Sneer about Herndon all you want. It’s a great place to raise STEM smart kids. And it’s a short silver/Orange/blue line commute from “cooler” Ballston, Courthouse, Tysons areas.

Most of these employees are not going to be able to afford a $700-900K house.

Then they are really in for a shock if Amazon HQ2 lands in Boston or DC,proper or closer in to DC or a lot of the HQ2 possibilities. How much is a SCH is a good neighborhood with good schools going to cost in Boston? In DC? In Arlington?

Real estate. If Amazon lands in DC or Arlington those jurisdictions get the Amazon $ while many employees would live in Fairfax County. That leaves Fairfax County with massive schools influx and no business revenue just the property taxes on residences. Not a good situation.

Anyone fly out of Logan in Boston? A hassle. On the water not the "cornfields" of Dulles. That airport is so congested that Dulles is a pleasure. As one PP stated the silverline will be in plus for drivers it would be a reverse commute. Fairfax and Loudoun build new schools far more quickly than Arlington [if ever] and DC. Plus there is land to build.

Reston has urbanized - like Bethesda, Courthouse etc but is accessible and having had urban planning from scratch is a pleasure. RTC gets a metro stop. Frickin place is like a Disneyworld built on horse pastures.

The type of employees AMZN is likely to hire would never live in Fairfax. Most of their employees in Seatle are in the same zipcode as the office. If they want to attract top talent, they'll be in DC proper or possibly close in Arlington. Out in hillbilly country you'll get 3rd raters.

[Anonymous]

It looks like the MoCo site is a pretty leading candidate. Apparently the majority owners are in advanced discussions with Amazon towards a deal and the minority owners are filing a lawsuit claiming that they are getting rooked in the deal. We'll see how it turns out, but this lends credence to the idea that Amazon is very interested in the MoCo site.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/08/03/possible-amazon-hq2-site-in-maryland-draws-another-lawsuit/