Amazon truly has developed into a beast of the Northwest. Indeed, Amazon is a major presence in Seattle, occupying tremendous amounts of office space, employing many people, and generally boosting the economy in that region.
Amazon announced some months back that it will establish a second headquarters within the United States. Not surprisingly, many cities came courting, trying to woo Amazon into their backyards. There has been quite a bit of buzz about where Amazon ultimately will locate its second headquarters. And now, according to a recent article by the Business Insider, Amazon may be on the brink of reaching a decision. But where? Drumroll please!
It appears that Amazon may choose an area of Northern Virginia that is located near Dulles International Airport and that is known as “Data Center Alley.” Why would Amazon be interested in this area?
Data Center Alley has been referred to as the “bull’s-eye of America’s Internet,” with more than 70% of the world’s Internet communications flowing through there.
Furthermore, Amazon not long ago established the headquarters of its cloud business only three miles away from this location.
In addition, Amazon has plans to construct a 44-acre data-center campus precisely in this area.
Moreover, Amazon already has about thirty other data centers with an easy drive of this location.
On top of these reasons, the cost of power in this region is relatively inexpensive.
And, being adjacent to Dulles International Airport is advantageous. Plus, a Metro station is under construction there that will facilitate commuting to and from Washington, D.C. and proximate suburbs. (Your blogger grew up in this area and recalls when Dulles was being constructed and how there was essentially nothing along the access road that led to Dulles).
The decision has not been made yet. But the Business Insider presents credible reasons to believe that the Data Center Alley in Northern Virginia stands a decent chance of being awarded the location for Amazon HQ2.
Eric Sinrod (@EricSinrod on Twitter) is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. You can read his professional biography here. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please email him at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm or its individual partners.