Home Notifications Newsletters Next Share

One walk through Seattle's 'Amazonia' neighborhood made me very uneasy for whatever city gets HQ2https://www.businessinsider.in/one-walk-through-seattles-amazonia-neighborhood-made-me-very-uneasy-for-whatever-city-gets-hq2/in-the-90s-south-lake-union-was-a-mess-of-parking-lots-warehouses-and-industrial-buildings-amazon-has-transformed-the-neighborhood-and-its-surrounding-areas-belltown-and-denny-triangle-each-of-those-pins-on-the-map-is-an-amazon-office-/slidelist/62373466.cms2018-01-05T03:06:18+05:30

One walk through Seattle's 'Amazonia' neighborhood made me very uneasy for whatever city gets HQ2

Jan 5, 2018, 03:06 IST

In the '90s, South Lake Union was a mess of parking lots, warehouses, and industrial buildings. Amazon has transformed the neighborhood and its surrounding areas — Belltown and Denny Triangle. Each of those pins on the map is an Amazon office.

Amazon's offices are spread across more than 33 buildings throughout the area. Some say the number is closer to 40. The company leases 100,000 square feet of office space in this building, nicknamed Otter.

It's hard to overstate how thoroughly Amazon dominates downtown. The company is up to occupying 13.6 million square feet of office space in Seattle, according to some reports. Day 1 Tower, opened in 2016, is one of two towers that form the heart of Amazon's campus.

Amazon employees are literally everywhere. They're easily spotted by the ubiquitous blue badges hanging from their belts or around their necks.

Amazon has more than 20% of Seattle's prime office real estate. That's more than twice as large as any company in a major US city. It has more office space than the next 40 employers in the city combined.

Construction on Amazon's third and fourth towers is underway. The biggest employer in major cities usually occupies less than 5 percent of office real estate. Having one company take up so much space has its consequences.

The most iconic part of the campus are the Spheres, glass domes to be filled with diverse and exotic plants, a waterfall, and 45-foot-tall rusty leaf fig tree. The spheres, which will be kept at a pleasant 72 degrees, will be open for employees to work in.

Schoettler told the Seattle Times that Amazon built the domes not just for employees, but "for the city." They will not be open to the public, but Amazon has said it is looking for ways to bring in visitors.

The dog park, however, is open to the public. Amazon is a famously dog-friendly workplace.

Amazon has commissioned a number of sculptures that dot public spaces, like Petros by artist Julie Speidel. But they tend to conform to Amazon's sleek aesthetic, which many say lacks the colorful character of the rest of Seattle.

There is a strange vibe that Amazon controls everything. Amazon security guards questioned this Seattle Times videographer about what she was doing ... on public property. Shortly after, the guard began filming me, saying that Amazon documents all media personnel. I had never identified myself as a reporter.

Amazon is "almost juicing" the office market, Windmere Real Estate's Matthew Gardner told the Seattle Times. At times, office space from non-Amazon employers has shrunk, but because Amazon keeps growing, demand keeps rising. Amazon has leased this entire building on Westlake, the main thoroughfare, since it was built.

Developers are capitalizing on the demand to build a host of new skyscrapers. As of May 2017, the city was home to 58 construction cranes, by far the most in the US.

There are 74 projects currently under construction in downtown Seattle. Two-thirds of the buildings will be residential towers, with a large majority being apartments for rent, not condos.

Seattle has gone from one of the most affordable West Coast cities to one of the least, Aaron Terrazas, a senior economist for Zillow, told CNNMoney. The city and developers have tried to alleviate that by building tons of apartments. Downtown has added 20,000 units in the last decade, with another 27,000 on the way.

But nearly all the buildings are considered luxury real estate, with rents 40% higher than older buildings. The dueling 41-story Insignia towers include amenities like a "sky retreat," indoor lap pool and sauna, and a screening room.

From 2005 to 2015, Seattle's median rent has jumped three times the national median. In downtown Seattle, average rent has jumped to $2,400 per month, meaning you'd need to make around $96,000 to afford it.

Big and small businesses in the neighborhood have to cater to Amazon employees if they want to survive. Even strip clubs and sex shops like Little Darlings and Fantasy Unlimited.

High-end furniture stores like West Elm and specialty grocers have moved in to service the new luxury renters, but they didn't seem to busy when I was there.

Restaurateurs flocked downtown to capitalize on the Amazon workforce, but business hasn't showed up as promised. Last January, restaurant eur Josh Henderson closed his tacos and drinks spot, Bar Noroeste, when Amazonians didn't bite. He reopened as a ramen shop months later.

Amazon has reportedly done its part to help. Cafeterias at Amazon are kept to a smaller capacity to encourage employees to go out into the neighborhood and spend at restaurants.

Amazon has created a booming lunch crowd that a fleet of food trucks feast on everyday. When I walked around the neighborhood, it seemed like everyone on the street carried a blue badge and a takeout box.

With so much real estate under its belt, Amazon has become one of the biggest landlords in the city, dictating what businesses rent its spaces. For its part, Amazon has rented out to local businesses and avoided chains.

The company is determined to turn its surrounding area into a thriving all-day neighborhood. As of August, the company rents out space to 32 businesses, with 24 of those being restaurants and cafes.

Amazon's lease agreements require restaurants to stay open late into the night. But the area reportedly turns into a ghost town after work with many restaurants finding they can't generate enough business at night to justify the cost of staying open.

Some former restaurant employees said that Amazon security guards micromanage shops and track when they close. One restaurant owner likened Amazon to "Big Brother." James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Keff sold her restaurant Flying Fish when she found she was just breaking even.

Amazon's massive pull has brought other tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, and others to Seattle to snap up local talent. But some say that has only made it harder for small businesses and startups to get started.

Eric Blohm, a senior managing director for commercial real estate firm Savills Studley, said some developers won't even talk about leasing floors. They're looking for companies that will take up whole buildings.

The neighborhood is a microcosm of Silicon Valley cultural trends. Bulletproof Coffee, the masterminds behind the idea of putting a slab of butter in your morning coffee, opened an outpost earlier this year.

With so many techies in the city, Seattle has become a testing ground for some startups, like Bay Area dockless bike-sharing startups LimeBike and Spin. Green bikes were scattered through the neighborhood.

The neighborhood seemed to move to the rhythms of Amazon. At lunchtime, the streets were bustling. In the hours after, they were practically empty, save for a couple people grabbing coffee.

The massive load of employees hasn't just snarled traffic, but public transportation. Buses are reportedly packed at rush hour. This past summer, buses were so overcrowded Seattle added extra buses to accommodate demand.

Amazon has tried to alleviate the traffic issue with a private fleet of shuttles to ferry employees to and from the further-out suburbs. Unlike other companies, Amazon has kept the shuttles white and without signage.

In the last decade, South Lake Union has undergone $668 million in infrastructure improvements, including a new streetcar line. The vast majority of that came from public funds. It begs the question of whether that money might have been better spent on education or housing.

Amazon has pushed the city to install more bicycling paths and tracks throughout the city, even funding the ones around its campus. But some Seattleites have complained that the new lanes burden already gridlocked streets.

Amazon has tried to warm its relationship with Seattleites. Since 2015, the company has given out more than 1.7 million free bananas at "community stands." While well-intentioned, the Wall Street Journal reported that the effort upended the local economy for bananas.

Amazon has given tons of retail space to FareStart, a nonprofit that tries to help people out of poverty by offering jobs and training at its restaurants. Maslow's is one of five restaurants run by FareStart in the area.

Amazon has let Mary’s Place, a nonprofit homeless shelter, operate here for free since 2016. It will soon come down to build more Amazon buildings. When they are complete, Amazon will gift the nonprofit six-stories and 47,000-square-feet in one of its new buildings.

Cities across the country have put together extensive economic incentive packages to lure Amazon. But critics have warned that giving away too much could eliminate benefits to the city and that cities need to plan for the inevitable side-effects: increased traffic, housing shortages, and skyrocketing rent.

Longtime city council member and former mayor Tim Burgess said in November that while Amazon's effect has been an overall positive for the city, the downsides have affected "people who are traditionally marginalized anyway — or already — in our system. People living in poverty, people of color, immigrants and refugees."

Seattle reminded me of stories I've read about Seoul, South Korea, where anything and everything is made by or somehow tied to Samsung, which dominates the economy there. Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods last summer seemed to hint at that future.

When I speak to family and friends from Seattle about Amazon's dominance, they sound ambivalent. For decades, Boeing dominated Seattle, putting workers and the city at the mercy of the company's layoff cycles. In the the early 1970s, for example, the company cut its workforce from 100,000 to 50,000, devastating the local economy. There is a fear that history could repeat itself.

It's hard to deny that Amazon has been a positive for the city, but there is definitely an uncomfortable feeling that the area is Amazon's fiefdom, subject to Amazon's rules. My run-in with Amazon's security guards reinforced that. Cities trying to win HQ2 might want to be careful what they wish for.

Next Story Celebrities who have surprisingly never attended...

View All Latest