Native Dallasite

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Dallas in late talks with Amazon as location for their new HQ2 site!

Incredibly good news!

The Wall Street Journal reports in their Sunday, 11-04-18, edition that Dallas is in late talks with Amazon about it being selected as Amazon's new multi-billion dollar HQ2 site.  Two other cities - New York City and Crystal City, Virginia - are also mentioned as being in the same late stages of discussion.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-in-late-stage-talks-with-cities-including-crystal-city-va-dallas-new-york-city-for-hq2-1541359441

My continuing prediction ... that I've been making all along:

Look out Texas as Amazon's HQ2 is heading to Downtown Dallas! 

Or worst case scenario it is split between Dallas and Crystal City, Virginia. 

Even in a worst case scenario it will be a HHHHHHUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEEE win for Dallas ... and Texas.

And even Houston, to some extent, will benefit from Dallas being selected for HQ2 what with the High Speed Rail station in Downtown Dallas that will be  located right next to Amazon's Dallas HQ2 "Smart District" location ... making a "quick" rail trip between Downtown Dallas and North Houston very possible.

Dallas area is number one in nation in new home construction with 36,264 home starts over last 12 months at end of 2Q18, 08-09-18:

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2018/08/09/d-fw-nations-undisputed-king-home-construction-latest-ranking

Downtown Dallas, June 2017 on flickr

The recent comments below are quite encouraging.

Coming from Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of The Perot Companies (and Hillwood Development, who is already a trusted Amazon business partner having built 14,000,000+ sf of commercial space for them over just the last few years) it all but assures Perot has his finger on Amazon's HQ2 pulse.

Perot's points mimic what I posted in bullet form on 10-24-17 (below).  I happen to think Ross Perot Jr. is correct in his assessment of Dallas' chances of landing this big fish ... Victory Park Urban Village has Amazon's name all over it!

Developer Ross Perot Jr. likes Dallas' chances to land huge Amazon HQ2
By Steve Brown, Dallas Morning News, 11-15-17
...
This week, The Wall Street Journal said that D-FW was its favorite spot for the Amazon deal.
Perot's Hillwood real estate company does a lot of business with Amazon.

"Our Amazon relationship is very strong," he said. "They are a great client — an amazing company. We spent time with them in Seattle."

Maybe that gives Perot some insight to what Amazon's top dogs are thinking.

"I do think they want an urban solution," Perot said. "They want an uptown solution. They are going to want mass transit," he said. "We have wonderful sites that can take care of Amazon."

Perot's Hillwood is pitching its Victory Park property on the northwest edge of downtown Dallas as a potential Amazon headquarters site.

He said the real estate needs for the new Amazon begin small.

"It starts at 500,000 square feet and ramps up to 6 or 7 million square feet," Perot said. "The first years are very doable at a half a million square feet of office."

Perot said soaring costs in West Coast markets are sending major companies, including Amazon, scouting for new locations.

North Texas' huge airport and geographic location would be important for Amazon as it expands around the globe, Perot said.

"What better place to grow around the world than [with] DFW Airport," he said. "A huge airport like DFW to connect to the world with affordability in the middle of the United States."

"I think we have a great shot at Amazon."

...

Full article: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/11/15/perot-likes-north-texas-chances-land-huge-amazon-hq2

The Wall Street Journal's analysis, just published today, points to Dallas as the best overall city as the selection for Amazon's massive new HQ2 headquarters ... with an investment of $5 Billion dollars that will employ upwards of 50,000 highly paid and skilled workers.

Even though the competition is stiff, I agree with the Wall Street Journal's just published assessment and believe Dallas will be the selected location.

It will transform Dallas in ways not even imaginable right now and will be a major catalyst to propel Dallas to become the 3rd mega-city metropolis in the nation ... behind Greater New York City and Greater Los Angeles. We're already the central core to the 4th largest metro ... and Dallas will eclipse Chicago even faster if Amazon's HQ2 comes to town.

The Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall.  Access to the full article can be had through this Twitter link:

https://mobile.twitter.com/asharma/stat ... 3312804864

The case for Dallas now only gets stronger from this point on.

What are Amazon's main businesses?

1. Distribution: Amazon needs a low-cost, central location. 

Answer: Dallas wins as it is an already existing centrally-located low-cost major national and international logistics hub.

2. Data center operations: Amazon needs central location with low operating costs, including power.

Answer: Dallas wins again as an already existing top three data center hub in the nation, with some of the lowest operational and living costs of all major cities. 

Fundamentally, companies such as Amazon compete by lowering costs.  Over the life of HQ2 the cost advantages of Dallas will save Amazon billions and billions of dollars.  And that means Amazon will win more and more business and become even more successful. 

Amazon's bottom line will be the main driver for their Decision Dallas.

Downtown Dallas with new freeway signage to Amazon Urban Village:

This absolutely has to be the top contender site for Amazon's HQ2 location for all of the reasons as set forth in the hotlink. 

As far as Amazon's requirement of 500,000 sf available by 2019 there are a couple of opportunities for larger blocks of space in a couple of the Downtown towers that would meet that need while the build out of the actual Urban Village campus is underway.

Why Dallas will be selected for Amazon HQ2, based on compelling business data points as outlined below:

* 4th largest metro in nation
* # 1 in population growth
* # 1 in overall job growth, and projected to be at forefront of office jobs creation between 2017-2019
* 40,310 tech jobs created in last 5 years with Dallas area known as Silicon Prairie
* # 5 in nation in overall tech labor pool with 161,150 tech jobs, and growing
* # 1 in nation for attracting skilled talent (see article link below)
* # 1 in growth percentage in number of tech degrees being granted
* # 1 in residential construction (multi-family & single family)
* # 2 in office space construction, and projected to be at forefront of worldwide office construction boom between 2017-2019
* # 1 in net office space absorption, first nine months of 2017
* in 2016 jumped to #4 in the nation in GDP (leapfrogging both Washington D.C. & Houston in one year)
* in 2016 jumped to #1 in Texas as largest concentration of Fortune 500 headquarters with 22
* as of 2016 the undisputed financial and economic center of the entire South and Southwest (see above)
* ranks among the lowest in cost of living among all major metros in nation
* home to the largest light rail transit system in nation, and adding second major Downtown subway line
* with DFW - home to a major international airport, and growing in global importance annually
* with Love Field - home to a second major national airport, that is close-in to city center, and growing
* major national logistics hub with 4 interstates converging in city and a 5th interstate loop around the city
* home to a major medical district with UT Southwestern, growing bigger and more important every year
* equi-distant from East and West coasts and equi-distant from Canada to Mexico/Central  America

http://www.economicmodeling.com/2017/06/16/which-metro-areas-attract-the-most-talent/