Looks like NOVA won Amazon HQ

[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.

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.

No, they don't live as close as you are saying.

[Anonymous]

Nope, Amazon is not coming to any location in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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/

NOVA was always the logical choice. Amazon left specific bread crumbs for months: the internal website report showing record number of staff viewing Arlington, VA award to the Economic Development position in NOVA. Housing affordability never factors into corporate location. That his only an employee consideration. AMZN AWS is already in Northern Virginia instead of Jackson, MS due to talent availability. Studies on corporate incentives show and housing affordability rank consistently at the bottom compared to talent and ease of doing business. LA, Toronto, Austin, Denver, Boston, New York, DC etc. all have high cost housing, so why are they on Amazon's Top 20? Housing cost is a public relations ploy, but not actually considerec by big corporations. Amazon lands in NOVA 90%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope, Amazon is not coming to any location in the DMV.

I agree with PP, don’t see any way it will be in the region

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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/

NOVA was always the logical choice. Amazon left specific bread crumbs for months: the internal website report showing record number of staff viewing Arlington, VA award to the Economic Development position in NOVA. Housing affordability never factors into corporate location. That his only an employee consideration. AMZN AWS is already in Northern Virginia instead of Jackson, MS due to talent availability. Studies on corporate incentives show and housing affordability rank consistently at the bottom compared to talent and ease of doing business. LA, Toronto, Austin, Denver, Boston, New York, DC etc. all have high cost housing, so why are they on Amazon's Top 20? Housing cost is a public relations ploy, but not actually considerec by big corporations. Amazon lands in NOVA 90%.

AWS cannot hire enough people and no one stays. Its probably more than talent why they are there. If they paid enough, they could get people to move, no issue. Right now they have to bring in a lot of people on Visa's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

This doesn't really mean anything - Amazon has a huge AWS and federal consulting practice already spread out throughout northern virginia.

[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.

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.

No, they don't live as close as you are saying.

Amazon was built using guest workers. They will love the 10s of thousands of h1bs and l1s and h4bs in the nova area. It is EXACTLY the type of worker bezos wants, young cheap and disposable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My source is a good friend who is the CFO of a commercial real estate company. He's the one who spoke to the Amazon folks.

I’ve heard this from a bunch of different brokers and developers...all of them have something in common...assets for sale, or in JBG’s case, shitty assets nobody wants and a hail marry prayer that amazon fills up crystal city.

I invest in DMV as well as other markets on the short list...and guess what? The folks down in Atlanta are spinning the same story. Same in Raleigh, same in Boston - there are even markets not on the list that are making late unsolicited bids and the marketing pieces they’re putting out for property sales say things like “close to potential Amazon HQ2 site”

These brokers and developers are all selling sunshine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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/

NOVA was always the logical choice. Amazon left specific bread crumbs for months: the internal website report showing record number of staff viewing Arlington, VA award to the Economic Development position in NOVA. Housing affordability never factors into corporate location. That his only an employee consideration. AMZN AWS is already in Northern Virginia instead of Jackson, MS due to talent availability. Studies on corporate incentives show and housing affordability rank consistently at the bottom compared to talent and ease of doing business. LA, Toronto, Austin, Denver, Boston, New York, DC etc. all have high cost housing, so why are they on Amazon's Top 20? Housing cost is a public relations ploy, but not actually considerec by big corporations. Amazon lands in NOVA 90%.

AWS cannot hire enough people and no one stays. Its probably more than talent why they are there. If they paid enough, they could get people to move, no issue. Right now they have to bring in a lot of people on Visa's.

H1B is primarily a means at reducing wages.

[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.

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.

Exactly! This is why Amazon had to locate in Seatle and not out in the boonies like M$. Sure, that worked in the 80s but millennials aren't interested in working out there. Ultimately it's about attracting top talent.

[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.

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.

Exactly! This is why Amazon had to locate in Seatle and not out in the boonies like M$. Sure, that worked in the 80s but millennials aren't interested in working out there. Ultimately it's about attracting top talent.

West coast is closer to India

[Anonymous]

The news is now saying Amazon will be in a Crystal City —-location has been leaked. But Amazon will also have more ham one location in this area. I’m glad MoCo will not suffer from the traffic headache and bidding wars for homes.

[Anonymous]

Too bad VA is going to let Amazon get off on those big tax breaks which will fall on the middle class. I wonder how the tax breaks will work since they are splitting the locations. Will tax breaks be split in half? Jobs sounds nice for VA until Amazon monopolizes the VA tech industry.

[Anonymous]

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-splitting-hq2-reveals-contest-was-a-sham-2018-11

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the article PP. From the article: If Amazon is able to get away with essentially robbing Virginia and New York of millions of dollars in tax revenue and not even offering up in return what it originally promised, what else is it capable of?

Which is exactly why I’m glad Maryland and MoCo didn’t win the area bid.