4 ms·

Wouldn't really make sense, an HQ would need to be in an actual city, not a sprawling suburban bedroom community. Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal.

sneak 9y ago
Why would it need that?
kohanz 9y ago
How many big tech HQ's meet that criteria?
ghaff 9y ago
Why? Tons of huge multinationals have headquarters that are not in a downtown. And Silicon Valley isn't exactly an "actual city." [ADDED: In fact, I'd be a bit surprised if they end up in a downtown core--certainly of a "hot" city where real estate is scarce and expensive. For example, while they're putting in a Boston office, it's about 2% of the 50K employees number.]
- asr 9y ago
  But Amazon is part of a generation of companies which see some value in pushing back against this trend.[1] Microsoft moved to Redmond; Amazon moved downtown. If they really want a second HQ to mesh with the first culture-wise, they are likely going to look to put it close to a downtown core. (Although if they are going to attract 50k workers they probably want a bit of land adjacent to the core, similarly to how in Seattle they located in what used to be a not-so-developed area where Paul Allen had purchased a lot of real estate to try to create a park, and Amazon has really made it part of downtown on their own.) [1] https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/4kc8ovgnyf996yn https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/4kc8ovgnyf996yn ("we made a conscious choice to invest in downtown Seattle—even though it would have been cheaper to move to the suburbs")
trevyn 9y ago
The RFP explicitly states that they prefer "Metropolitan areas with more than one million people", but that the site does not have to be "An urban or downtown campus".
- obstacle1 9y ago
  Great. The population of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge combined is just over 500k [1]. Disqualified, then. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities_(Ontario) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities_(Ontario)
Pxtl 9y ago
KW is not a bedroom community. It's sprawling, yes, but it's too far from Toronto to function as a bedroom community. KW stands on its own.
- obstacle1 9y ago
  Sorry, you're absolutely right. I misspoke about it being a bedroom community.

sneak 9y ago

Why would it need that?

kohanz 9y ago

How many big tech HQ's meet that criteria?

ghaff 9y ago

Why? Tons of huge multinationals have headquarters that are not in a downtown. And Silicon Valley isn't exactly an "actual city." [ADDED: In fact, I'd be a bit surprised if they end up in a downtown core--certainly of a "hot" city where real estate is scarce and expensive. For example, while they're putting in a Boston office, it's about 2% of the 50K employees number.]

asr 9y ago
But Amazon is part of a generation of companies which see some value in pushing back against this trend.[1] Microsoft moved to Redmond; Amazon moved downtown. If they really want a second HQ to mesh with the first culture-wise, they are likely going to look to put it close to a downtown core. (Although if they are going to attract 50k workers they probably want a bit of land adjacent to the core, similarly to how in Seattle they located in what used to be a not-so-developed area where Paul Allen had purchased a lot of real estate to try to create a park, and Amazon has really made it part of downtown on their own.) [1] https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/4kc8ovgnyf996yn https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/4kc8ovgnyf996yn ("we made a conscious choice to invest in downtown Seattle—even though it would have been cheaper to move to the suburbs")

trevyn 9y ago

The RFP explicitly states that they prefer "Metropolitan areas with more than one million people", but that the site does not have to be "An urban or downtown campus".

obstacle1 9y ago
Great. The population of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge combined is just over 500k [1]. Disqualified, then. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities_(Ontario) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-Cities_(Ontario)

Pxtl 9y ago

KW is not a bedroom community. It's sprawling, yes, but it's too far from Toronto to function as a bedroom community. KW stands on its own.

obstacle1 9y ago
Sorry, you're absolutely right. I misspoke about it being a bedroom community.