SEATTLE - To get a sense of how big Amazon’s second headquarters will be, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution went to Seattle to see the first.
The e-commerce and technology giant is massive here. The company is the largest employer in downtown Seattle, with more than 45,000 workers. The company says HQ2 will ultimately have more than 50,000 workers and grow to become an equal to the original campus, which in Seattle is spread across more than three dozen buildings.
Here are five things to know about Amazon’s base of operations in Seattle and what the winner of HQ2 might expect.
1. The scale: Amazon says it occupies more than 8 million square feet of office space in 38 buildings in downtown Seattle. For some comparison, 8 million square feet equals about six of Atlanta's tallest building, Bank of America Plaza, or about four Lenox Square malls. Amazon has said it has invested about $4 billion in the campus, which stretches from the northern part of downtown, in a cluster of high-rise office towers in the Regrade section of the city, to dozens of buildings that dot the South Lake Union neighborhood. That neighborhood was largely controlled by Paul Allen, the billionaire and Microsoft co-founder, who once wanted to build a grand park and biotech campus. Plans for the park fell through, but it's now a hub for tech companies. What had been an under-developed stretch of the city is now a neighborhood of mid-rise office buildings and apartments home to Facebook and a future Google campus.
2. Growth to come: Amazon desires a second headquarters to rival its first, but the company has said it's not done growing in its hometown. Amazon plans to grow to about 12 million square feet of office space. Amazon's growth and that of other tech companies is also putting a crunch on the city's housing and infrastructure. Housing costs have soared, commutes are long, and the company seems to be aware that its next home needs to have plans in place to handle affordability and mobility challenges.
3. Features: The Amazon campus is really in two distinct parts. There are the pair of 37-story towers and the funky Spheres in the Regrade section of town, and then there are the mid-rise offices that dot South Lake Union. Amazon has two additional blocks of high-rise buildings under construction in Regrade, one of which will feature a homeless shelter on site that can serve more than 200 families. Amazon, partnered with a nonprofit called Mary's Place to serve homeless families, a reflection of the company's commitment to help solve one of Seattle's thorniest problems. The Spheres are giant arboretums designed as an employee work and social space, as well as a public space on certain Saturdays that's open for tours. The South Lake Union part of the campus feels a lot like Technology Square in Midtown, but on steroids. It's much larger than Tech Square, and lined with cafes, restaurants and other tech companies that want to serve Amazon or tap into its talent base.
4. Transportation: For Amazon, transit at HQ2 is a high priority. Amazon says an employee survey found 55 percent of its workers use public transit, bike or walk to work. The company supplies its workers with ORCA cards, Seattle's version of a MARTA Breeze card. Amazon also paid for the fourth streetcar in the city's line that runs through South Lake Union. The company also runs a fleet of buses to ferry workers from downtown to the suburbs. But traffic in Seattle – not unlike Atlanta – is pretty miserable, and the city has an ambitious plan over the coming decades to pump tens of billions into transit expansion.
5. Dogs: Seattle is a city for dogs, and dogs are a unique part of the Amazon culture. The company has more than 7,000 registered canines at its campus, and Amazon built dog parks for the public and employees. There's even a rooftop dog park on an upper floor of Amazon's Doppler tower.
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