Back in September, Amazon announced plans to build a second headquarters in North America, labeled the HQ2. Along with this announcement, nearly every major city in North America submitted a bid to Amazon, resulting in over 200 bids being submitted.
Just a few weeks ago, Amazon released a list of the top twenty cities that it was considering, one of them being Philadelphia.
I remember as soon as I heard that Amazon was taking bids, a couple of friends and I knew that Philly would be the perfect place to host it, mainly because there is a slight— what I like to call— creative and technological boom.
Drexel University President John A. Fry in Philadelphia’s video bid said, “There has never been a more exciting time in Philadelphia than right now.”
Yeah nice statement, but how?
Well, it is no secret that, according to CEO of Curalate Apu Gupta, “This city is exploding.”
You still need some proof of this? Just look at the skyline.
What is that giant building? Well, that’s the Comcast Technology Center. That’s right. In little under a decade that Comcast moved to Philadelphia, they have already doubled their presence in the city.
Is that not enough? Well, how about some other small companies in the region. The first one that comes to mind for me is GoPuff, a small delivery company that delivers anything that you can find in a convenience store. They are headquartered in center city and have spread their franchise to over ten areas in the country.
Along with this, other tech startups are established in the Philadelphia region like DuckDuckGo, an internet privacy company located in Paoli; WebLinc, a software company based in Old City and KickUp, and an online educational company based in Center City.
If you are still not convinced that Philadelphia is a good city for Amazon, look at the population.
Where can we get workers that are ready to tackle a tech giant like Amazon? That’s easy: the local colleges and universities that surround the city.
The main colleges to look at here are Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.
UPenn is mostly known for being an ivy league school, known for its medical school and hospital run by students and doctors, making it one of the best in the region. The school is also known for its elite design, communications and art and sciences school.
Now we move over to Drexel. They teach somewhat of the same stuff here, but it still drifts away from UPenn. One, it’s a research school, mostly known for its sciences, communications, law and entrepreneurship aspects.
Remember that startup GoPuff I mentioned earlier? It was started by two Drexel Students named Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev.
My point is that this shows that the local students can be greatly depended on when the time comes if Amazon comes to town.
Now, we need to see if Philly is even qualified for Amazon to move in based on their requirements.
First, they need a city with a population that’s over one million. Philly has over 1.5 million people, according to World Population Review.
A stable and business friendly environment is also required. Honestly, from personal experience from working in Manayunk and witnessing the ongoing economic boom happening in Philadelphia, I know the city has got that covered.
Now, these next ones might sound a little tricky, but it’s all really easy to understand.
So Amazon needs a location with the perfect distance and with perfect transportation access. What they want is a place that is within 30 miles of the city center, within 45 minutes of an international airport, within three miles of major highways, with access to mass transit routes and a place with 1 million square feet for office space.
This all may sound complicated, but due to the locations up for bid, it is doable.
The locations that Philly has proposed that Amazon an reside in either University City or the Navy Yard, both of which are located literally next to major highways like I-76 and I-95.
University City has plenty of access to transportation hubs.
Both the Navy Yard and University City locations are literally a 10-15 minute drives to the airport, which does provide daily flights to San Fransisco, Seattle and other international locations, as required.
Lastly, Amazon needs land for 8 million square feet of office space.
The Navy Yard is the easiest to point out, due to a literally huge plot of empty land on the eastern part of it.
As for University City, that’s a tricky one. Due to that fact that Drexel and UPenn already take up more land there, Amazon may need to turn to the Schyukill Yards project. This project contains plans to build another section of the city, but with the $5 billion that Amazon promised to invest in the project, it will be possible.
To end this off, Philly is the perfect place for Amazon to move into.
To reiterate my main point, “There has never been a more exciting time in Philadelphia than right now.”
