3 ms·

SLC might be too 'small' but it growing, has a super strong university system and tons of software engineers.

drewying 9y ago
While Salt Lake technically meets the requirements, they do so just barely. The metro area barely cracks a million people, and the airport maybe has 1 or 2 international flights a day. Plus Amazon and the Utah state government still have a lot animosity towards each other from the whole online tax thing. Plus it's really tough to attract out of state talent in Utah. I think Salt Lake would be a very hard sell compared to what Amazon could easily get with Denver.
pc2g4d 9y ago
SLC metro population: 1+ million Including SLC and Utah counties both: 2+ million University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University Substantial tech talent, startup scene. Adobe, EA, Ebay, Microsoft, Oracle all have a presence. And don't forget the NSA. International airport connects to Canada, France, Mexico, Netherlands, UK... but will take two hops to get anywhere else. https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDocuments/Flight-Schedule-Info/International-Destinations-by-Airline-September-2017.pdf https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDocuments/Flight-Schedu... Meetingplace of I-15, I-80, I-84 Culture almost the complete opposite of Seattle's. Mountain Time Zone Killer cost of living Government willing to make substantial concessions to tech companies But... I'm guessing it's just not quite connected enough to be seriously considered.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I did my undergrad at UW and my grad at UU, I would say the cultures between SLC and Seattle aren't far off, in fact, SLC is the only city I ever knew to have 24 hour coffee shops. Not to mention mountains, hiking, and skiing.
jordache 9y ago
SLC has terrible pollution that is directly correlated with population within the valley. Adding 50K more to the mix in a short amount of time is not a helpful addition

While Salt Lake technically meets the requirements, they do so just barely. The metro area barely cracks a million people, and the airport maybe has 1 or 2 international flights a day. Plus Amazon and the Utah state government still have a lot animosity towards each other from the whole online tax thing. Plus it's really tough to attract out of state talent in Utah. I think Salt Lake would be a very hard sell compared to what Amazon could easily get with Denver.

pc2g4d 9y ago

SLC metro population: 1+ million Including SLC and Utah counties both: 2+ million University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University Substantial tech talent, startup scene. Adobe, EA, Ebay, Microsoft, Oracle all have a presence. And don't forget the NSA. International airport connects to Canada, France, Mexico, Netherlands, UK... but will take two hops to get anywhere else. https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDocuments/Flight-Schedule-Info/International-Destinations-by-Airline-September-2017.pdf https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDocuments/Flight-Schedu... Meetingplace of I-15, I-80, I-84 Culture almost the complete opposite of Seattle's. Mountain Time Zone Killer cost of living Government willing to make substantial concessions to tech companies But... I'm guessing it's just not quite connected enough to be seriously considered.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I did my undergrad at UW and my grad at UU, I would say the cultures between SLC and Seattle aren't far off, in fact, SLC is the only city I ever knew to have 24 hour coffee shops. Not to mention mountains, hiking, and skiing.

jordache 9y ago

SLC has terrible pollution that is directly correlated with population within the valley. Adding 50K more to the mix in a short amount of time is not a helpful addition