Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 16, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 13 It's not hard to reach Us Figure 1 - Tin Can Telephone Equal Housing Lender I Member FDIC | Member DIF At Main Street Bank, we still believe in the power of the spoken word. That's why we offer all our customers a direct line to our employees. No confusing phone trees, just an actual phone number for an actual human being. It's not the usual way of doing things, but that's just fine by us. Let's talk soon — 508-481-8300. North of Ordinary BankMainStreet.com | 508-481-8300 money with them, too. Amazon said employees at HQ2 will make average annual salaries north of $100,000, near- ly double Worcester County's average annual salary of $56,368, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since they will make up more than one-fifth of the city's population and have nearly double the salary of area workers, Amazon's workers have the potential to impact everything from real estate prices to school enrollment. Also being completely flipped would be the makeup of the area's workforce. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 288,000 people work in the Worcester area. The education and health industry leads the charge with about 68,000 workers while manufacturing, a hall- mark of the region, has about 27,800. Although HQ2 would have all types of jobs from lawyers and accountants to janitors and computer engineers, they would be classified under the trade, transportation and utilities industry, which is already the second largest in Worcester at about 53,000. Swelling that number to 103,000 would then make it the largest employment industry. At 50,000 employees, Amazon would be the largest Central Mass. employer, unseating UMass Memorial Health Care with its 12,906 employees. An Amazon skyline Amazon's HQ2 campus would demand an immense amount of space – about 500,000 square feet to start and around a whopping 8 million square feet after a decade of full build out. There are, of course, not 8 million square feet of contiguous ready-to-build land in Worcester, so the city is instead proposing different parcels to contrib- ute to a larger, urban campus. "We're going to show a couple differ- ent ideas of how you could assemble a campus," Augustus said. Augustus would not detail potential sites being offered to the company, but Timothy Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said multiple sites in the city are just waiting to be developed. Murray and city officials have their finger on the pulse of developable sites after they were actively marketed to other developers: a space in Gateway Park to fit a 250,000 square feet and the 298,000-square-foot former Unum building on Chestnut Street. For 8 million square feet, though, the question may not be where will Amazon build, but how high. "We've seen over the years that Worcester has had some vertical con- struction," he said, citing skyscrapers at 446 Main St. and 100 Front St. There's only about 4 million square feet of office space in the downtown area. Since Amazon's proposal calls for double that, the city would need a lot of new construction, vertically or spread out throughout the community, the research bureau's McGourthy said. "This campus would literally be a massive reconstruction of Worcester's office market," McGourthy said. An Amazon impact In Seattle, a much bigger city with a population of about 700,000, Amazon was a catalyst for downtown, winning the Downtown Seattle Association City Maker award this year. Support businesses follow a company like Amazon to serve both its opera- tions and its workforce. After its Seattle headquarters was built, the number of Fortune 500 companies in the city rose from seven to 31, while its headquarters is home to 32 restaurants and retailers. "Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 result- ed in an additional $38 billion to the city's economy – every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city's economy overall," the company said in its RfP. Central Massachusetts colleges are already exploring possible programs and partnerships with the company. Worcester Polytechnic Institute said the school has alumni working at Amazon, said Stephen Flavin, vice pres- ident and dean of academic and corpo- rate engagement. The company's search for a second location, Flavin said, has reinforced the importance of STEM education and industry to the economy. "WPI is of course open to discussing the potential partnerships and opportu- nities a company of Amazon's size and reputation could bring to the city, region, or state," he said. The Amazon bid comes at a perfect time for Quinsigamond Community College, said Kathy Rentsch, dean of the School for Business Engineering and Technology. QCC last year intro- duced a logistics and supply chain pro- gram she said would be perfect for potential Amazon workers. "It's really not something that's pre- sented to students along the K-12 path or in business administration pro- grams," she said. An Amazon pitch Although he acknowledged the city would have a lot of work to do to bring Amazon to Worcester, Augustus remained extremely optimistic on what Worcester has to offer businesses. The arts and culture scene in the city is vibrant, new restaurants open almost daily, and more millennials are choos- ing to stay in Worcester after college, Augustus said. The odds of Worcester securing HQ2 may be long, but the potential impact is worth taking the time to put together a comprehensive application, he said. Amazon says it will announce its deci- sion in 2018. "The payoff is enormous," Augustus said. *Includes surrounding communities Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Worcester's economy Manufacturing $7.1 billion Finance & insurance $6.2 billion Education & health care $5.9 billion Government $5.9 billion Trade $4.9 billion Professional & business services $4.5 billion Arts, entertainment & restaurants $1.4 billion Information $1.2 billion Transportation $1 billion Other $4.2 billion Total $42.3 billion Amazon in Worcester Jobs 288,000 50,000 Office space 4 million square feet 8 million square feet (downtown) Average annual pay $56,386 $100,000 Economy $42 billion GDP* (2016) $38 billion** Fortune 500 companies 0 1 Worcester* Amazon HQ2 *Worcester metropolitan area, including surrounding communities **Estimated economic impact in Seattle from 2010-2016 Sources: Amazon, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Worcester Regional Research Bureau If Amazon were to choose Worcester for its HQ2, the city would see drastic jumps in everything from population to real estate. W If Amazon were to come to Worcester, its direct impact would grow the trade indus- try while its indirect impact would run the gamet of the entire Worcester metropolitan area* economy.

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