Harvard Business Review parses the Amazon HQ2 RFP to see how it fits notions of city-making. Thanks to Amy Liu and Mark Muro.
Even as Vancouver continues to support and grow its already-strong digital economy, perhaps there is welcome congruence around broader city planning strategies between Vancouver and Seattle’s gorilla.
Amazon’s selection criteria, as described in the company’s request for proposal, sets out a compelling list of the attributes cities must have if they aspire to be a serious part of the America’s growing digital economy.
Among several other takeaway thoughts:
Connected and sustainable placemaking. The Amazon RFP reads like an urban planner’s dream, brimming with calls for energy efficient buildings, recycling services, public plazas, green space, and access to multiple modes of transportation. While Amazon will apparently consider greenfield sites as well as existing developments for its new headquarters, it emphasizes its interest in promoting walkability and connectivity between densely clustered buildings through “sidewalks, bike lanes, trams, metro, bus, light rail, train, and additional creative options.”
Yes. Bike lanes.
It is more than a little bit ironic to hear about “promoting walkability and connectivity between densely clustered buildings through “sidewalks, bike lanes, trams, metro, bus, light rail, train, and additional creative options” from a company founded on the use of hundreds of thousands of gas and diesel powered trucks to deliver products to millions of doorways.
Or which, arguably, has brought about to the decline of hundreds of local storefronts and retailers who simply can’t compete with Amazon’s pricing and selection.
More efficient to have someone drop a package off as part of dropping off many packages, than to have a person go to a store, or several stores.
Also, last I checked they are also at the forefront of trying to replace their last mile deliveries with electric drones…
Amazon uses Canada Post and private couriers a lot. So the fleet of delivery trucks already existed or expanded marginally. I have yet to see an Amazon step van, car, light truck or semi.
When addressing climate change in relation to ground transportation, we need to focus first and foremost on the hundreds of millions of single-occupant cars rolling around the continent, which comprise almost 3/4 of all road traffic outside of urban downtowns and the largest transit-serviced town centres.
Amazon does rely on air cargo. Here again, the number of cargo km likely falls well below the massive number of passenger km, the majority of which do not stem from essential trips.
Displacing book stores with online Amazon-ordered books seems to be the way of the future. That is the power of economic change and it is felt widely, by print media none the least. On the other hand, Indigo-Chapters has a good online service as well as large storefronts, and locally-owned bookshops, like Victoria’s Munro’s Books and Bolen Books are large and going strong. If Amazon lowers Whole Food’s prices and offers home delivery to shut-in seniors, then more power to them for developing vital services.
Hello Alex,
Amazon has their own drivers now.
Actually anytime you see a white van being driven in an unsafe manner, there’s a good chance it’s being driven by an Amazon deliveryperson
LOL! That could also be my drywaller contractor neighbour. He’s originally from Montreal. Need I say more?
Committed to sustainability and to a site that’s within 30 miles of a population center.
How much public money in the form of tax credits do they want?
From the Amazon RFP.
“Proximity to International airport; Within 45 minutes.
Proximity to major highways and arterial roads. Close to major arterial roads to provide optimal access; Not More Than 1-2 miles.
Access to Mass Transit; At Site.”
Richmond could be a contender. Where in Vancouver could meet the second requirement?
It would make sense for them to go to Winnipeg then.
Where in Vancouver could they get the space anyways. They would have to build several large towers, with much larger floor areas than any of our current stock.
Burnaby may be more amenable. Somewhere near BCIT wouldn’t be a terrible fit, especially if they can get a N-S Skytrain line built on Willingdon.
Amazon will hire as many as fifty thousand (50,000) new full-time employees with an average annual total compensation exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) over the next ten to fifteen years, following commencement of operations. The Project is expected to have over $5 billion in capital expenditures as described in more detail in this RFP.
Only if those trucks are all solar powered and all 50,000 employees commute on a bike. Otherwise, take a hike!
The proposal said very little about new warehouse processing plants, of which are already well-supplied on a regional basis. The RFP outlines the need for a second head office, no doubt to research and develop worldwide tech trends and innovate.
A good location would be on both sides of the Canada Line Bridge – Richmond and Vancouver. There is empty land on both sides and location appears to satisfy their requirements.
If they do consider Canada they will probably be wooed by Quebec and Montreal where the government pays over 30% of the salary of new hires by giving the companies a grant. This is why so many companies locate in Quebec. Saving a third of the salary of your employees is very attractive and enables the employer to pay them more.
They have a Metro in Montreal, Charlevoix Station, five minutes from downtown, is near too where the federal government is building the new Chaplain Bridge, with a freeway to the airport. Close to the eastern US and cheaper in every way.
Both Arno and Urbinflux have good points on the suitability of sites in other nearby cities. Rapid transit connectivity make this possible.
My suggestion for site contenders within Vancouver are:
Mount Pleasant light industrial district. Mid-rise (12-15-storey) campus building frontage along Broadway stepping down over several blocks to the north. Three existing, proposed or expanded rapid transit stations within a 5-minute walk. Direct rail + road connections to YVR and downtown. Three to six ~8,000 m2 blocks should offer enough land for most of their floor area needs at mid-rise heights.
Potential physical incentives:
– build Broadway city hall hub station with a direct entry to Amazon complex
– offer to close a minor street (e.g. Columbia save for a utility easement) for a campus pedestrian spine
Marine Drive light industrial district. Marine Gateway Station within a 5-minute walk. Land assembly possible (~145,000 m2 / 36 ac.) west of the Manitoba works yard to Heather. Predominantly low-value single-storey warehouses and parking lots, a lot of auto shops. Avoids existing residences. Deducting 20,000 m2 for setbacks and internal open space, 125,000 m2 at an average of 6-storeys will fairly easily afford 750,000 m2 of floor area, topping the RFP requirement for 744,000 m2 (8 million ft2).
Potential physical incentives:
– see above re: closing minor streets
Both concepts should be accompanied by financial and possibly in-kind incentives, but in my opinion it’s important to not be too desperate and give away the farm.
It appears Vancouver meets or exceeds the majority of the urbanism criteria in the RFP. As mentioned earlier, hiring Canadians will also offer a reduction on the employee health benefit packages because core medical services are covered by our public healthcare system. Yuri Artibise brought this point up too earlier with the added comment that the lower Canadian dollar and pay differential compared to the U.S. will also be attractive, and I believe this may be one of the main reasons Amazon opened up the competition to the continent by specifically listing “provinces” along with states.
False Creek Flats would be a great location for some of their needs. A lot of this is currently a blank slate and city is planning a great cycling and walking environment.
Indeed. However, it may be pertinent to keep at least one railyard in place for future use. Intercity rail will be a big thing in future. Without the railyard there will undoubtedly be enough land for another campus.
There are to to many people working in C O V who don”t live there. There are to many people living in the suburbs who can”t find local employment.. Do we want more people on our overcrowded roads & transit ? Employers should be encouraged to locate where people live .False creek flats should be high density residential ( without parking) where residents could walk, bike or skytrain to downtown jobs.
A perspective on Amazon
http://splinternews.com/amazons-new-headquarters-should-be-in-hell-1802701693
Wow. Talk about loaded language. “Extortion of public resources.” Degrading competitions.” Way over the top.
I can’t believe Vancouver, Toronto or Chicago will “grovel” to land Amazon. The deal will be negotiated, and if a city grovels and gives away fire dept. salaries for Amazon’s coffers, the council will pay a steep price at the next election.
Not a peep about the neutral, unemotional and utterly boring standard economic multipliers of the trades building a campus over a decade, and thousands of new workers paying rent or a mortgage, buying lunch and beefing up transit ridership.
Nope. This is about the big bad CEOs and Corporate America’s take over of the world, something I’ve been hearing since 1961. Last time I checked not even Amazon has hypnotized the masses into forsaking their free will.
If you read the complaints from Seattleites about Amazon, it’s almost all centred on housing affordability (i.e. they hire tons of people at high salaries, which leads to gentrification of neighbourhoods). But, here in Vancouver, we have much worse housing affordability already, yet we have no solid driving factor such as tons of new, high paying jobs. So, is Amazon really to blame? And, if they are to blame, does that mean if Amazon comes here, our rents would likely double?
Placing a campus filled with generously-paid tech workers and researchers near rapid transit brings the majority of Metro’s more affordable town centre housing (the majority being multi-family) within a 30-minute commute by transit. However, many workers will be in two-income households, so Vancouver condos will then be reachable.
If one focuses only on the now-obsolete detached home on a large lot, they are SOL on the Burrard peninsula, unless they are in management.
Yes Kirk it means our ridiculously high prices would go even higher, partiulcarly in vulnerable areas. You could expect mass demoitions of three story walk-ups in Mt Pleasant if Amazon landed there. The same in Marpole if they took Arno’s suggestion and located on the banks of the Fraser. Those buildings are one of the last bastions of affordability in this city and they’re already fast disappearing.
An Amazon employee will have rapid transit practically at the office door in Mt Pleasant. That puts thousands of affordable apartments within direct or a one transfer access to Downtown South, Brentwood, Joyce, Metrotown, Lougheed, Royal Oak, Edmonds, New West, Surrey Centre, IOCO, and Coquitlam Centre. Most of thess communities are less than 20 minutes from Mt Pleasant. Lonsdsale could be included in that list too though the SeaBus is slower. Marine Gateway also makes every town centre and downtown accessible by rapid transit, albeit with transferring.
Direct access to fast and frequent transit will spread out the housing demand and take some pressure off local neighbourhoods. Assuming a walking radius of 500 m from each of the 12 stations listed above, the housing and transit catchment area approaches 10 km2.
The Metro is bigger than Amazon.
My suggestion (near Canada Line Bridge) is now mostly empty industrial land. How could that displace residents?
The industrial land would only be for the campus. Where were you expecting them to live? Marpole is currently home to some of the last affordable rentals on the west side. Developers would love to get their hands on them (some already have).
See above comment on the power of rapid transit to distribute the housing demand more widely throughout the region.
The Kent light industrial land west of the Manitoba works yard consumes about 250,000 m2 of land for mostly single-storey auto shops, truck repair garages and other lower value uses, like parking lots. Amazon needs 744,000 m2 of floor area max, and that is perfectly achievable on about 125,000 m2 of land at 6 storeys. There is a lot of land left over there for Amazon to build several hundred dedicated rental housing units for a portion of its workforce within or at the periphery of a campus in that location.
Otherwise, employees can take the train elsewhere with a 30-minute commute. There are solutions and choices that needn’t put undo pressure on the existing housing.
This article is very interesting, it explains how in silicon valley more and more people are living in cars.
https://www.ft.com/content/82bc282e-8790-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787
If the link doesn’t go through just google The Great Silicon Valley land grab.
It is sad and revealing.
There are a few things here that do not compare to the scenarios described in the article.
First, and most importantly, we never had a Proposition 13 here with a radical slashing of taxes to the point the public was put in danger with decimated fire and police dept budgets. As the result, local government in some places there cannot function properly. One community in the article cannot even afford to hire planners to process the tech giant’s expansion plans. Our taxes support more efficient civic infrastructure and a larger social safety net than Silicon Valley, including universal healthcare that covers every breathing Canadian, from the homeless to the CEOs.
Second, Canada’s immigration policies allows foreign tech workers in if not enough can be found regionally. Sometimes they displace locals, but that can result in very damaging press. RBC understands that now. In the US, the immigration of skilled foreign workers is now constrained.
Third, Facebook, Apple and Google decided to locate in the same low population suburban area of San Francisco and built vast, car-dependent complexes. Of course their presence will be more acutely felt. They did not choose the city where their large presence could have been absorbed more readily, even when urban land and housing prices were much cheaper decades ago. Vancouver can present a distinctly larger and more flexible urban condition to large tech companies than the small towns of Silicon Valley, which experienced something akin to Amazon building a tech campus in Abbottsford.
Google appears to be the only one of the Big Three there that learned something and, as the article clearly states, is preparing to develop a more compact urban complex in downtown San Jose. They are displacing auto shops and disused warehouses, not residents. They purposely chose the site because it is a 5-minute walk from an existing CalTrans rail station and adjacent to a planned tram line. In addition, they plan to build 10,000 housing units for their own workers in or near their new campus.
There are some issues that we need to learn to avoid regarding the effects of large corporations on smaller communities, and displacing poor people is one of them. However, choosing a dense city over sprawling suburbs has very clear advantages regarding efficient public transportation that makes affordable housing across the region accessible, and a larger economy more able to adjust to the new presence.
I hope Amazon s paying attention to Google’s plans.