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Amazon’s Lesson

The lesson from Amazon is clear—the gateways are where you want to be and will want to be, if you can afford it.

Last Fall when Amazon initiated its food fight among North American metros for its “second headquarters,” I predicted in this space that the Washington DC area would be the winner. Jeff Bezos and company would pick a 24-hour city in the eastern half of the country that would culturally appeal to a millennial work force wanting the opportunities and amenities of a bright-lights, big city environment. The location would need to fit a more progressive consciousness in keeping with the current Seattle home base, a deep blue mecca. It would be a gateway city at a transportation nexus with internationally connected airports in proximity to interstates and train lines linked into key regions reaching down to the south and into the Midwest. And it would be a place close to a cloud computing networking intersection. The area around the nation’s capital fit the bill. It didn’t hurt that Bezos owns the Washington Post and would want to make a statement in the nation’s political power center.

So the DC area has won the prize or at least half of it. New York is the other winner. The Apple fits my parameters on all counts too—gateway city, the nation’s number one draw for young on-the-make talent, and a progressive bastion. I put New York behind Washington primarily because even a big company like Amazon moving into the area wouldn’t make the same impact that it would elsewhere. It would be just another big company in a city full of them.

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Jonathan D. Miller

Jonathan D. Miller

A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.

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