Amazon: The Thread | 5,000 Jobs | 1M SQFT in Nashville Yards

[Nashvillain]

3 hours ago, Rockatansky said:

I've often heard the opposite?

I questioned myself as I wrote that. But I think it might come down to how engaged and assertive any given council group is versus any particular executive administration. I think there is a lot of room in the framework for each to assert its will. But, maybe you're right, as the executive is staffed by full time people with incentives--time, money, legacy, to do that job, as opposed to the council, which is a body of citizen-legislators. 

Maybe I was thinking it's the other way around given the tremendous turnover in the mayor's office that Nashville has experienced since... Purcell? 

[Mr_Bond]

Near the end of the Meetup on Saturday, I mentioned that Amazon had contributed to The Housing Fund.  The donation was $2.25M per this news item on the website:

www.thehousingfund.org

Dec 7 – Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is announcing a $2.25 million donation to The Housing Fund on Monday. Marshall Crawford, CEO of the Nashville nonprofit, says he’s aiming to help a minimum of 500 low-income and moderate-income households — potentially including people working in service-industry jobs or as first responders — manage the surging cost of housing. 

[markhollin]

Amazon has become a title sponsor for the new Nashville chapter of the global nonprofit Blacks In Technology Foundation. Membership is free, and many training programs are free or subsidized by corporate sponsors such as Amazon. The foundation sets sponsorship based on city size; as a "tier 2" city, the Nashville sponsorship cost $10,000. Holly Rachel, co-founder of the Nashville chapter, said it already has 120 members. She's striving for 500 or more.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/07/07/tech-bytes-amazon-blacks-in-tech-groups360.html

[nashvylle]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Amazon has become a title sponsor for the new Nashville chapter of the global nonprofit Blacks In Technology Foundation. Membership is free, and many training programs are free or subsidized by corporate sponsors such as Amazon. The foundation sets sponsorship based on city size; as a "tier 2" city, the Nashville sponsorship cost $10,000. Holly Rachel, co-founder of the Nashville chapter, said it already has 120 members. She's striving for 500 or more.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/07/07/tech-bytes-amazon-blacks-in-tech-groups360.html

Can someone tweet this to StandUP Nashville please

[rolly]

Disgraceful the amount of racism going on with these programs.  Directly excluding, say, Hispanic individuals simply because of their skin color.

Remember Dr. King, who says to judge people by their character, not their color? I guess not.

At least the article used an interesting photo for downtown.

[markhollin]

8 minutes ago, rolly said:

Disgraceful the amount of racism going on with these programs.  Directly excluding, say, Hispanic individuals simply because of their skin color.

Remember Dr. King, who says to judge people by their character, not their color? I guess not.

 

How is a group that has often been under-represented or overlooked in certain sectors having an association to encourage more participation/networking considered racist?

[BnaBreaker]

39 minutes ago, rolly said:

Disgraceful the amount of racism going on with these programs.  Directly excluding, say, Hispanic individuals simply because of their skin color.

Remember Dr. King, who says to judge people by their character, not their color? I guess not.

At least the article used an interesting photo for downtown.

That is quite an abstract definition of "racism" ya got there!

[DDIG]

22 hours ago, Nashvillain said:

I questioned myself as I wrote that. But I think it might come down to how engaged and assertive any given council group is versus any particular executive administration. I think there is a lot of room in the framework for each to assert its will. But, maybe you're right, as the executive is staffed by full time people with incentives--time, money, legacy, to do that job, as opposed to the council, which is a body of citizen-legislators. 

Maybe I was thinking it's the other way around given the tremendous turnover in the mayor's office that Nashville has experienced since... Purcell? 

Mayor used to run the show. Really giving power to council started to ramp up with Barry. She put things in their court that usually the Mayor has handled and it has continued some from there.

[titanhog]

[Mr_Bond]

Walking by Tower One on Church Street this morning I saw two workers installing lights at the bottom beam of the exterior slats (can never remember what those are called).  They extended from the beam at least a foot and had a spotlight attached at the end.  They will really light up that south face!  Maybe someone could get a pic since I didn't have my camera with me.

[markhollin]

Nashville Software School announced a new software engineering certificate program on Monday, based on a curriculum from Amazon.

Amazon approached Nashville Software School to form the partnership, the latest in a string of examples of the retail behemoth looking to foster tech talent in the region's K-12 systems, colleges, boot camps and other programs. Amazon has hired more than 2,000 workers for its Operations Center of Excellence at downtown's Nashville Yards development — more than 40% toward its goal of 5,000 jobs at that two-tower office hub.

Students of the online program can earn a certificate with specializations in Java and Amazon Web Services. According to a press release, graduates "will be able to apply for junior software engineering roles with the most selective employers. For example, NSS graduates who apply at Amazon for full-time, entry-level software development engineer roles will undergo the same hiring and evaluation process as graduates from four-year computer science bachelor’s degree programs."

The first cohort will have 25 students, and it will begin in June 2022. For the following cohort, the school plans to double enrollment, to 50 students.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/inno/stories/news/2021/11/08/amazon-nss.html

[markhollin]

Amazon has now reached the 2,500 hired level for the Nashville Logistics Hub downtown. There are currently 700 current job openings towards the eventual total of 5,000 jobs that will be in Nashville Yards in the next 3 years.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/11/12/amazon-reaches-hiring-milestone-for-its-nashville.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021.11.15 NASH&utm_term=NASHtoday Subscribers - MASTER

[nashvylle]

Does the article state if the hiring process is on track, or taking longer than expected? 

[markhollin]

1 hour ago, nashvylle said:

Does the article state if the hiring process is on track, or taking longer than expected? 

It does not say.

[markhollin]

Amazon wants to donate $1 million grant to the city to foster bigger and more equitable development near bus stops and rail stations.

https://nashville.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9964075&GUID=35537547-B40C-47DB-A43A-993125E1B799

Some members of Metro Council and advocacy groups feel like this might give Amazon too much power. 

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/11/18/amazon-transit-development-grant.html


And behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/metro-repurposing-amazon-s-1m-transit-grant/article_67b6e7ce-48ae-11ec-ae2f-df97aab2250d.html

[Bos2Nash]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Amazon wants to donate $1 million grant to the city to foster bigger and more equitable development near bus stops and rail stations.

https://nashville.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9964075&GUID=35537547-B40C-47DB-A43A-993125E1B799

Some members of Metro Council and advocacy groups feel like this might give Amazon too much power. 

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/11/18/amazon-transit-development-grant.html

I was actually coming to share the NBJ article on this as I just saw it over on LinkedIn. 

I agree with SUN and CM Sledge on this matter in that the money should absolutley not go to funding a specific person. Honesly, I don't believe that NDOT should even be hiring a person for TODs. That is a position that should be within Planning and coordinate with NDOT related objectives. 

[markhollin]

Amazon is committing more than $5 million to create opportunities for minority real estate developers and to boost affordable housing in Nashville. 

Amazon.com Inc. announced the grant to the Urban League of Middle Tennessee on Wednesday. It appears to be the single-largest grant Amazon has made in a string of donations to nonprofits, schools and other organizations and community institutions.

More here:

https://www.ulmt.org/redacademy


And at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/12/08/amazon-urban-league.html

[markhollin]

Amazon gives another $1.5 million to The Housing Fund, to pay. taxes for landlords of affordable housing.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2021/12/16/amazon-housing-fund-landlords.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_34&cx_artPos=6#cxrecs_s

[markhollin]

Amazon is raising the floor of its annual salaries for tech and corporate employees, as the company faces stiff competition from tech employers with more impressive compensation packages.

The Seattle-area tech giant told employees Monday in an internal blog post that maximum base pay would more than double from $160,000 to $350,000. 

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2022/02/09/amazon-to-double-maximum-base-salary.html

[Flatrock]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

The Seattle-area tech giant told employees Monday in an internal blog post that maximum base pay would more than double from $160,000 to $350,000. 

It wasn't that long ago when this was the salary of a President/CEO of a small to mid-sized company. WOW.

[colemangaines]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Amazon is raising the floor of its annual salaries for tech and corporate employees, as the company faces stiff competition from tech employers with more impressive compensation packages.

The Seattle-area tech giant told employees Monday in an internal blog post that maximum base pay would more than double from $160,000 to $350,000. 

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2022/02/09/amazon-to-double-maximum-base-salary.html

Amazon has managers rank their subordinates, and fires the bottom 5-10% every year. I wouldn't be surprised if they're struggling to find qualified candidates that haven't worked for them before.

[smeagolsfree]

Looks like there will be a bidding war between Amazon and Oracle for talent. Thats not to mention whoever else comes to town. 

[bnacincy]

2 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Looks like there will be a bidding war between Amazon and Oracle for talent. Thats not to mention whoever else comes to town. 

Someone else coming to town?

[smeagolsfree]

Who knows, just commenting outside the box there.

[markhollin]

Amazon now employs 31,000 full or part time employees in Tennessee, making up 1% of the statewide workforce.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2022/02/11/amazon-employment-tennessee.html