What’s New with Boston’s Big Amazon Bid

Boston seemed a shoe-in for the Amazon HQ when the city was announced as one of the 20 finalists earlier this year. Where are we in August 2018?

Though Boston still leads with a talented workforce, it may be flagging when it comes to infrastructure, cost and funding. It seems incentives aren’t on the agenda in Beacon Hill at the moment. Predictions change every month, but some of the most recent ones include Raleigh. Atlanta (Amazon is competing for a huge Defense Department contract there) and northern Virginia.

What’s really interesting is how Amazon has been portrayed as Boston’s white knight. Is that really the case? Boston’s property market is booming and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. What Boston has to offer is of real value: an ever-churning knowledge economy that produces the most attractive workforce in the country. If Amazon didn’t choose Boston for HQ, the market’s confidence might take a knock, but it’s likely that it would recover.

If Amazon did move in, the Amazon campus would constitute a whole new hub in the Boston Area (perhaps reviving the proposed South Boston location). Amazon would create 50,000 jobs by some estimates, so housing availability would feel a pinch. The market might take this as a signal to drive property prices beyond the already rising cost to live and work in and around the Boston area. Other companies might follow Amazon’s lead and compound the inventory stretch But Boston already has GE and a whole host of bubbling talent.

The attorneys at Valanzola Law Group have handled many real estate closings from complex commercial real estate transactions to representing first time home buyers with purchase of their property. They have insight into the Boston real estate market and can help guide you every step of the way through the entire process. Contact Valanzola Law Group today for more information.

Published on August 10, 2018