Comments on Amazon, Vulcan and... The Mariners

there is a 1.35p game today vs. the Angels at Safeco...

Please keep on this story. This is pretty damned important.

I wish Paul Allan would give me some of his money.

Looks like a case of Vulcan trying to squeeze a better deal for themselves by threatening that Amazon will leave Seattle otherwise. But it's highly unlikely that Amazon would leave for the 'burbs. They have a big recruiting advantage with smart young college graduates because they say "We're the fun tech company in a fun big city - not the boring suburbs. After all, you want to live in Belltown, not Issaquah."

They'd lose that if they left town for a soul-less office park. And they'd lose a big chunk of existing staff that like walking, biking, bussing, and railing their way to work every day. The thought of being stuck on 520 tends to make people reconsider their employment options.

Good one, Josh.

I second Ryan @2. Please!

When I worked at Amazon I did hear vague rumours of a new campus out by Issaquah...ugh...

I wonder how Nickels and Co. is defining affordable housing. This could be a fight over what kind of tax breaks to give to people who don't need it, rather than a fight over whether to have such giveaways at all.

I'm actually privy to some of the city's plans and the takes of some of the developers...

The short story is that developers coming from out of town are ready to whip out the checkbook. For them, this is just a cost of doing business (esp for those from California). Most of the local developers are freaking out though.

(Of course these sweeping generalizations don't apply to everyone. Some local developers "get it." At least one NY developer has complained to me about having to pay a couple million dollars to the downtown bonus fund... on a project that probably costs $200million.)

BTW, the city's inclusionary zoning request is going to be very modest. Think something like 10% of the extra space the upzone allows. So if building heights double, just 5% of the entire building is affordable.

Smart developers should realize how pathetic this is, embrace it, let it pass, use the opportunity to talk about giving back... and then quietly celebrate the bullet they've dodged. Like the downtown bonus, without the fight.

Oh, BTW, Vulcan is the fucking slimiest developer in town. They spend all their time corrupting the planning process.

Competent developers spend less time trying to change the rules and more time actually playing by them... and still make plenty of money.

Actually, Microsoft, Expedia, Google and Yahoo are all expanding or relocating to Bellevue, so there's so shortage of high-tech in the burbs.