Could Amazon HQ2 be North of Austin?
On Oct 20th, I published the post below "Is Amazon HQ2 Moving to Austin, Texas?". I am read this week that in addition to Austin City making a proposal to host the new Head Quarters-2 for Amazon, the Greater Austin area cities of Cedar Park and Leander have also put in their bid for the new HQ2. Here are my revised comments and thoughts on this competitive bid:
The mayors of approximately 50 cities are sitting on the edge of their chairs waiting for news concerning which city Amazon will select to be the next Head Quarters for their booming business. HQ2. Austin Texas, ATX is among the cities who are chasing this opportunity and while this must drive the old geezers on Austin Talk Radio crazy, this would be a great thing if Amazon were to choose Central Texas for this inflection in their business. Yes, it would mean that Central Texas would continue its growth curve, and that ship has sailed; you are either among those who are celebrating the growth of our area, or you are on the sidelines wishing for a day when Austin was weird and no one knew about how great a place this is to live.
Amazon is holding its cards close to its chest right now and like any good poker player, I am sure they are counting cards to see where they can get the biggest bang for their dollars spent. Of course, they already know they are holding the winning hand, but the question that they will have to struggle with is--how to win the biggest pot possible.
There are a number of spoken elements that Amazon has put on the table for consideration, but there are other factors that Amazon has to consider that are harder to talk about with a business that is trying to attract the best talent from all over the nation. The fundamentals of air transportation, good schools, mass transit, population, are all important to the competition among the cities. I believe Austin has been weighed and measured and some analysts believe that Austin may be at or near the top of the list for these fundamentals. But facilitating a massive business like Amazon in a host city has got to be the second biggest challenge that they face today. Setting up shop, hiring people and getting seasoned industry talent to move from other major cities in the country to the new host city has got to be Amazon's number one focus and priority when they look at where the Amazon HQ2 will set up shop. Without the right talent, all the tax credits and the fastest bullet trains won't matter. Job one for Amazon will be about people.
So, why is Austin the right place to attract the best talent for the new Amazon HQ2?
- As a Realtor who spends a great deal of time in all of Central Texas (Greater Austin), when I talk about "Austin", I am generally speaking of "The Greater Austin Area" that includes all the surrounding cities, especially those in Williamson County where the growth curve is among the fastest growing in the nation. At the top of the growth list in Williamson County is Leander and Cedar Park.
- I can also tell you that a significant part of my business portfolio is in Williamson County and Leander Independent School District. Now, LISD transcends Williamson County and Williamson County is more than just Leander ISD, but these two areas are a very large part of my business portfolio.
- Communities from Steiner Ranch, to Avery Ranch (both of which are in Austin, but parts of LISD and Round Rock ISD which is largely in Williamson County) are easy to access in North Austin and in the Cedar Park/Leander area. The Brushy Creek communities, and new communities along Ronald Reagan/North Parmer are all very attractive target communities for a Amazon campus in North Austin or in the Leander area.
- With great schools in the Leander ISD (over-all much better than Austin ISD schools), wonderful communities with more affordable price points and higher demographics, lower overall crime scores, more available and more affordable land, and a lot more available homes and communities with easy access to potential site locations, I would put Leander at the top of the list for the candidate for Amazon HQ2.
- Leander gives better access to 130 tollway and the airport, I35, 183 and MoPac. It gives better access to healthcare, new variety of communities, shopping, entertainment and all the things below that Greater Austin is known for!
- Oh, did I mention that Williamson County has a lot less traffic than Austin does?
- I would tell you that if I was invited to sit at the table and had a voice in this decision, this is certainly the conversation I would be having. There are no easy decisions when it comes to these matters, but I think Leander has so much to offer that Amazon would do well to serious consider this among its top consideration cities.
EARLIER POST FROM OCT 20, 2017:
Amazon is holding its cards close to its chest right now and like any good poker player, I am sure they are counting cards to see where they can get the biggest bang for their dollars spent. Of course, they already know they are holding the winning hand, but the question that they will have to struggle with is--how to win the biggest pot possible.
There are a number of spoken elements that Amazon has put on the table for consideration, but there are other factors that Amazon has to consider that are harder to talk about with a business that is trying to attract the best talent from all over the nation. The fundamentals of air transportation, good schools, mass transit, population, are all important to the competition among the cities. I believe Austin has been weighed and measured and some analysts believe that Austin may be at or near the top of the list for these fundamentals. But facilitating a massive business like Amazon in a host city has got to be the second biggest challenge that they face today. Setting up shop, hiring people and getting seasoned industry talent to move from other major cities in the country to the new host city has got to be Amazon's number one focus and priority when they look at where the Amazon HQ2 will set up shop. Without the right talent, all the tax credits and the fastest bullet trains won't matter. Job one for Amazon will be about people.
So, why is Austin the right place to attract the best talent for the new Amazon HQ2?
- Austin, Texas is where high tech is moving! Austin is Silicon Valley 2.0. The new SVHQ2. Look around--everyone else has been moving here for the past 5 years and every year we look more and more like what Silicon Valley looked like 20 years ago.
- Austin has a very low cost of living compared to most comparable cities in this race. I am not saying that Austin is free, or there are not cheaper places to live, but compare Austin to most of the major players where high tech dominates the business landscape today and Austin comes out on top.
- Austin is a place where people already want to move. Look at our international entertainment and you find SXSW and Formula One--each of which has international reach and renown. Then add in Austin City Limits, which is no small national event. Throw in the lakes, the hill country, and our seasonal events downtown and around Central Texas and you can see why people want to live in Austin today.
- Austin has high tech people resources. High Tech is a dynamic industry that thrives on competition and the more high tech there is, the more room there is for growth and innovation. Unlike car dealers and hardware stores, in high tech--more is better. Every major player in high tech today, hardware, software and all things internet have a major presence in our area today. Everyone, including the ASIC/chip companies. You name a company and they are here in a BIG way and many of them have their first or second HQ here: Intel. AMD. Motorola. ARM. Samsung. IBM. Dell/EMC. HP. Apple. 3M. Facebook. Google. LegalZoom. Cisco. National Instruments. PayPay. CA Technologies. Uber. RetailMeNot. Bazaarvoice. Yodle. Electronic Arts. Silicon Labs. Rackspace. VMware. HomeAway. And the list goes on and on and on.
- Austin has a constant feed of talent from our local universities that want to stay in Austin as well. The University of Texas. St. Edwards University. Texas A&M is not far, and neither is Dallas. So, the facet of talent is wide open and Amazon knows it.
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