Amazon HQ2 in Canada? Look to Disney’s Florida Deal for Insight
From climate change and healthcare to taxes and tariffs, the U.S. is anything but the “stable and consistent business climate” Amazon requires.
Since Amazon’s announcement seeking a second headquarters in North America last month, cities across the continent have been feverishly creating their pitches in an effort to woo the largest headquarters in America. In duplicate. Amazon’s current headquarters already has no similar comparison in urban campuses so creating a duplicate seems completely unprecedented.
The Florida Project
However, in 1966 the state of Florida signed what is still to this day the most unprecedented corporate land deal in U.S. history. After secretly amassing over 27 thousand acres of land, Walt Disney negotiated a deal with Florida for locating a second duplicate theme park in the state. While “duplicate” in a single sense, the Florida Project as originally planned was far more ambitious than California’s Disneyland and based on the experience and unparalleled vision only founders seem to possess.
The company was granted expansive rights over the property, which straddled two counties, allowing land use and building decisions free from politics. Rights that went so far as to even allow the optional construction of a nuclear power plant.
Disney, A Bezos Hero
Jeff Bezos in 2003 named Walt Disney as one his heroes, saying “The best thing that always amazed me was how powerful his vision was. He knew exactly what he wanted to build and teamed up with a bunch of really smart people and built it.”
Being an avid reader from childhood and considering the similar scale of his company, Bezos has likely investigated Walt Disney’s strategy for the 1966 land deal. In Married to the Mouse, Robert Foster, Disney’s legal counsel at the time said that, “Walt told him they should always deal with two jurisdictions at once.” and that purchasing land in both Orange and Osceola counties would provide additional bargaining power.
Global Company, Global Options
In considering American cities, Henry Grabar points out that, “No town truly fulfills the company’s demanding wish list.” As the world’s largest retailer and being focused on growth outside of the United States what possible benefit would Amazon gain by locating HQ2 in an American city?
In contrast, by locating a headquarters of equal scale in Canada the multinational company would be strongly announcing to the global marketplace that Amazon is willing to transcend the inconsistent policies of industrial age nation-states. From climate change and healthcare to taxes and tariffs, the U.S. is anything but the “stable and consistent business climate” Amazon requires.
Combine the current feud between Bezos and President Trump with the consistent ping-pong nature of U.S. policy between administrations in a severely divided country and it seems only natural that Amazon might seek stability by increasing bargaining power. As the power of nation-states in a global market strain under nationalist movements to remain relevant, Amazon can insure long-term stability while simultaneously illustrating the free market’s ability to rise above any restrictive government.
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