Amazon - Nashville

[OldandStillaVol]

Congratulations to Nashville for being awarded Amazon East Coast Operations Hub.

Nashville to become home of Amazon's East Coast hub of operations


Any ideas on what kind of jobs will be created there?

 

[MG1968]

consistent with any large warehouse/distribution center. Shipping/receiving, material handlers, forklift operators, maintenance personnel, security, IT, HR and admin, and so on.

 

[Boca Vol]

Boom for Nashville.

 

[NEO]

This is going to be a nightmare.
The gulch/lifeway area is not set up for semi trucks. The only option out will be broadway or church from lifeway area unless they go up through the city over Korean or the other bridge by the capital.

How the hell do they plan on making this even happen?

I could understand Antioch or Smyrna but downtown Nashville???

This will be a trainwreck.

 

[Aavoxx]

This is going to be a nightmare.
The gulch/lifeway area is not set up for semi trucks. The only option out will be broadway or church from lifeway area unless they go up through the city over Korean or the other bridge by the capital.

How the hell do they plan on making this even happen?

I could understand Antioch or Smyrna but downtown Nashville???

This will be a trainwreck.

That's right next to the interstate ramps and that place was loading docks galore when Lifeway was there. That's not the issue, in my opinion.

 

[NEO]

That's right next to the interstate ramps and that place was loading docks galore when Lifeway was there. That's not the issue, in my opinion.

Interstate ramps leading to a bottleneck at the 24/65 split and the 40/65 split.

My office is downtown just north of lifeway near the arcade.



This is going to suck.....

 

[Aavoxx]

Interstate ramps leading to a bottleneck at the 24/65 split and the 40/65 split.

My office is downtown just north of lifeway near the arcade.



This is going to suck.....

The traffic is going to suck regardless.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

The city already gave the developers a tax increment financing package to redevelop this site, not to mention the tax deal Lifeway got to move three blocks across Charlotte thereby making way for the site to be redeveloped. Now they're giving away I don't know how much in 'job creation' tax credits although I expect that very few current Nashville resident job seekers will ever be hired to work there unless they're working for a contractor providing maintenance, custodial, or security services. So it's more like a job moving tax credit. I read an estimate that 1.5 new jobs will be created to support each job that Amazon brings in, which I assume means they will need some extra barristas, cocktail waitresses, and food servers to handle the anticipated spikes in morning, lunch, and happy hour business in the area. Corporate welfare.

 

[Go aeiou]

White collar jobs. average salary $150,000.

EY, CPA, will open an office near music row. 500 jobs.

 

[Go aeiou]

The city already gave the developers a tax increment financing package to redevelop this site, not to mention the tax deal Lifeway got to move three blocks across Charlotte thereby making way for the site to be redeveloped. Now they're giving away I don't know how much in 'job creation' tax credits although I expect that very few current Nashville resident job seekers will ever be hired to work there unless they're working for a contractor providing maintenance, custodial, or security services. So it's more like a job moving tax credit. I read an estimate that 1.5 new jobs will be created to support each job that Amazon brings in, which I assume means they will need some extra barristas, cocktail waitresses, and food servers to handle the anticipated spikes in morning, lunch, and happy hour business in the area. Corporate welfare.

All true. I'm not sure every city and state isn't doing the same thing.
I was a consultant for Saturn in the 90s. I worked with almost no one from TN. The professionals and the blue collar workers were almost exclusively from MI. You still see the effect at the Preds games against the red wings. Almost as many wing fans there.
Not complaining about those damn Yankees. They were/are decent people.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

All true. I'm not sure every city and state isn't doing the same thing.
I was a consultant for Saturn in the 90s. I worked with almost no one from TN. The professionals and the blue collar workers were almost exclusively from MI. You still see the effect at the Preds games against the red wings. Almost as many wing fans there.
Not complaining about those damn Yankees. They were/are decent people.

I don't know what's happened at Volkswagen, but the only one of those ginormous corporate welfare bribes that really worked out the way the average person expected was Nissan. They actually taught local people how to work an assembly line and hired them. If the supreme Court decision on online sales tax collection stands, Amazon may be laying off thousands of workers pretty soon, just like Dell and Saturn did when their businesses slumped. The most upsetting thing about all of this is that Metro barely funded their current budget. They say it will all come back to us in property and sales tax revenue, but they keep putting more and more land into industrial and tourism development districts where most of the sales tax revenue cannot be used for essential services and the owner pays little or no property tax until they recoup their development costs. It's insane. Basically, they're just hoping that 5,000 salaries (presumably 150k is an average meaning many will be much less and a small few much, much more) will keep the real estate bubble from popping for another couple of years.

 

[Go aeiou]

I don't know what's happened at Volkswagen, but the only one of those ginormous corporate welfare bribes that really worked out the way the average person expected was Nissan. They actually taught local people how to work an assembly line and hired them. If the supreme Court decision on online sales tax collection stands, Amazon may be laying off thousands of workers pretty soon, just like Dell and Saturn did when their businesses slumped. The most upsetting thing about all of this is that Metro barely funded their current budget. They say it will all come back to us in property and sales tax revenue, but they keep putting more and more land into industrial and tourism development districts where most of the sales tax revenue cannot be used for essential services and the owner pays little or no property tax until they recoup their development costs. It's insane. Basically, they're just hoping that 5,000 salaries (presumably 150k is an average meaning many will be much less and a small few much, much more) will keep the real estate bubble from popping for another couple of years.

The employees with children will most likely not live in Davidson County because of the bad schools. Williamson, Wilson and Sumner counties all have much better schools. You can pay $10-20k per year for a private school or hope you child is fortunate enough to get into one of the Magnet schools ,but most people choose to live in another county.
I don't know who the average person in TN is, but I get the idea we are an uneducated bunch when it comes to economics that is just trying to survive (like most places in the world). VW hired many local workers at a good salary when they first opened. When people were desperate for a job they were hiring people for $10-12/hr. I suspect that is significantly higher now. Chattanooga lost jobs for decades. I moved there in 74 and the air was nasty. The city is in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and the air does not move out of that bowl. The industries that were the worst polluters shut down, and Chattanooga is a much cleaner city now. But, they needed businesses to employ people. VW did that.
Amazon might get hurt by the new sales tax ruling, but others online retailers will also have to collect the sales tax, and Amazon already collects sales tax on what "they" sell. At least TN tax revenue should increase. Or maybe we are just honest people, and we already keep records and pay our use tax to the dept of Revenue.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

The employees with children will most likely not live in Davidson County because of the bad schools. Williamson, Wilson and Sumner counties all have much better schools. You can pay $10-20k per year for a private school or hope you child is fortunate enough to get into one of the Magnet schools ,but most people choose to live in another county.
I don't know who the average person in TN is, but I get the idea we are an uneducated bunch when it comes to economics that is just trying to survive (like most places in the world). VW hired many local workers at a good salary when they first opened. When people were desperate for a job they were hiring people for $10-12/hr. I suspect that is significantly higher now. Chattanooga lost jobs for decades. I moved there in 74 and the air was nasty. The city is in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and the air does not move out of that bowl. The industries that were the worst polluters shut down, and Chattanooga is a much cleaner city now. But, they needed businesses to employ people. VW did that.
Amazon might get hurt by the new sales tax ruling, but others online retailers will also have to collect the sales tax, and Amazon already collects sales tax on what "they" sell. At least TN tax revenue should increase. Or maybe we are just honest people, and we already keep records and pay our use tax to the dept of Revenue.

Amazon has been collecting sales tax in TN and a lot of other states for years. Sellers on Amazon below the threshold still won’t collect tax.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

It's all of the states coming online in one year, many of which will have much lower thresholds than Tennessee's $10,000. Cash-strapped will make it a race to the bottom as they move to tax all online sales delivered to customers inside their borders. Personally, I don't think leveling the playing field on sales tax is a bad thing but you can bet that if it makes the stock price drop a hair the fat cats will be looking to 'trim fat' before anyone starts looking too closely at their pie plate.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

It's all of the states coming online in one year, many of which will have much lower thresholds than Tennessee's $10,000. Cash-strapped will make it a race to the bottom as they move to tax all online sales delivered to customers inside their borders. Personally, I don't think leveling the playing field on sales tax is a bad thing but you can bet that if it makes the stock price drop a hair the fat cats will be looking to 'trim fat' before anyone starts looking too closely at their pie plate.

Wayfair established thresholds of $100k or 200 transactions in a calendar year. I think states will have difficulty ratcheting that down considering it’s currently the law of the land. A lot of small sellers on Amazon aren’t going to trip those thresholds in a lot of states.

 

[Go aeiou]

Amazon has been collecting sales tax in TN and a lot of other states for years. Sellers on Amazon below the threshold still won’t collect tax.

FWIW, I said that. Unfortunately, we treated them special for too long, and did not require them to collect sales tax. Simply was not a level playing field.
It seems that many of the sellers will not fall below the threshold of most states. I buy things from known retailers who still do not collect tax, and Amazon does not collect it on their behalf. How much is the threshold these days in TN? It has been several years since I dealt with the TN Dept of Revenue, but they wanted at least $200 in sales per month about 20 years ago. Reason given was processing the return cost more than the tax collected.

 

[Go aeiou]

Wayfair established thresholds of $100k or 200 transactions in a calendar year. I think states will have difficulty ratcheting that down considering it’s currently the law of the land. A lot of small sellers on Amazon aren’t going to trip those thresholds in a lot of states.

My understanding is those are the numbers used in the law passed by the state of S Dakota. As far as I know other states are not bound by those numbers.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

My understanding is those are the numbers used in the law passed by the state of S Dakota. As far as I know other states are not bound by those numbers.

No but that’s sort of the backstop. The SC ruled that SD’s threshold test was fair, my guess is a lot of states institute similar guidelines as they will basically be immune to legal action. Taxpayers have a long history of losing in court, no one is going to fight regs supported by SCOTUS.

 

[Go aeiou]

No but that’s sort of the backstop. The SC ruled that SD’s threshold test was fair, my guess is a lot of states institute similar guidelines as they will basically be immune to legal action. Taxpayers have a long history of losing in court, no one is going to fight regs supported by SCOTUS.

TN is one of those states with a very high sales tax rate. They would likey have a lower dollar threshold to collect the same amount of sales tax as sd. Sd is 4.5 state and up to 2 local. TN combined is often nearly 10%.I don't get the # pf sales threshold. It has nothing to do with revenue. ????

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

I think TN is 10k in online sales in state.

 

[Go aeiou]

Month or annual? Gross sales?

 

[95 Vol Alum]

Nashville is becoming the west coast.

 

[JustFunnN'Orange]

The employees with children will most likely not live in Davidson County because of the bad schools. Williamson, Wilson and Sumner counties all have much better schools. You can pay $10-20k per year for a private school or hope you child is fortunate enough to get into one of the Magnet schools ,but most people choose to live in another county.
I don't know who the average person in TN is, but I get the idea we are an uneducated bunch when it comes to economics that is just trying to survive (like most places in the world). VW hired many local workers at a good salary when they first opened. When people were desperate for a job they were hiring people for $10-12/hr. I suspect that is significantly higher now. Chattanooga lost jobs for decades. I moved there in 74 and the air was nasty. The city is in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and the air does not move out of that bowl. The industries that were the worst polluters shut down, and Chattanooga is a much cleaner city now. But, they needed businesses to employ people. VW did that.
Amazon might get hurt by the new sales tax ruling, but others online retailers will also have to collect the sales tax, and Amazon already collects sales tax on what "they" sell. At least TN tax revenue should increase. Or maybe we are just honest people, and we already keep records and pay our use tax to the dept of Revenue.

I sold my property in Dekalb Co. in 2016 before moving to FL. Back then I talked to three realtors that said all their sales in the county were from people moving out of Davidson, Rutherford, Wilson Co's. People I sold to moved from Murfreesboro and were gonna commute back to work. Friends n Hermatige who work downtown say their commute has gone from 30 min. to 1 hr. + in the last 3 yrs..
Unfortunately, Nashville has changed forever, not for better I fear.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

I think TN is 10k in online sales in state.

Tennessee is $500k right now for out of state sellers. Ignore the “online” part of it, this has to do with out of state sellers of anything collecting tax for TN or whatever state. ABC Manufacturing in Arkansas sells a $600k piece of equipment to a company in Memphis. They are on the hook to collect that tax now.

 

[bigeasy]

consistent with any large warehouse/distribution center. Shipping/receiving, material handlers, forklift operators, maintenance personnel, security, IT, HR and admin, and so on.

This is going to be a nightmare.
The gulch/lifeway area is not set up for semi trucks. The only option out will be broadway or church from lifeway area unless they go up through the city over Korean or the other bridge by the capital.

How the hell do they plan on making this even happen?

I could understand Antioch or Smyrna but downtown Nashville???

This will be a trainwreck.

This isn't correct information. It will be management, tech focused and software developers. The avg salary for these jobs is at $150K. They are building an office, not a warehouse. So you aren't going to see semi trucks for deliveries. This is huge for the city and best case scenario because HQ2 would have destroyed the city. Sure 5,000 jobs is a 7% increase in the downtown workforce, but with the wages Amazon pays it could really help level the gap between Cost of Living and Wages in Nashville. Many of the big companies will have to bump up their incentives to prevent any poaching.

For anyone interested this is what the development is planned to look like. Amazon would be in the taller building which is currently just at 750K sq ft, so it may get larger since Amazon announced they will need 1 million.