Important update/correction midway through the article. The company planned the move before the virus and ‘protests.’
A business that made 1.58 billion dollars last year is leaving the “unrest” of Seattle and heading for Phoenix’ Camelback Corridor.
” … The unrest that has taken place in the city of Seattle … there is really is not a downtown business community today,” Smead Capital Management, President and CEO Cole Smead told KTAR News 92.3 FM.
Mr. Smead is having trouble getting staff and the cost of living in the city is very high.
“We’re hearing rumors of 40-story buildings that will be only 20-percent occupied by October,” Smead said, according to KTAR.
“My biggest concern for Seattle was what the business community is going to come back to, and what kind of businesses are going to come back for customers.”
He found that metro Phoenix offers a better quality of life.
“My colleagues can pick the socio-economic rung of life that they want … live their lives, build their households and have a family if they’d like,” Smead said.
“Where we’re coming from just wasn’t like that.
UPDATE
We have an update from the company. They planned the move before the virus and recent riots. Whatever the reason, he made a fortunate decision.
Update: SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The following is a statement from Cole Smead, President of Smead Capital Management:
Why We Moved
The decision to relocate from Seattle to Phoenix was not a reactionary move caused by any of the events of the past several months. As stock pickers, we continually evaluate our own business just as we would any of the companies that our clients own in their portfolios or the opportunities that the stock market presents us with for new investment. We took great care and deliberation in making this decision to relocate, which we began mentally exploring as early as two years ago. We announced our decision to move to Phoenix internally to our staff in January, long before COVID shutdowns or nationwide protests made their way to Seattle. Put simply, nothing happening or being reported in the news right now had any weight in our decision to relocate from Seattle to Phoenix.
SEATTLE’S IN TROUBLE
Seattle’s downtown is in terrible shape thanks to Mayor Jenny’s allies in Black Lives Matter and Antifa and her inability to handle the homeless problem.
After two shootings and one murder by CHAZCHOPeans in CHOPistan, there are no suspects or leads.
The minor who was shot at the Seattle “CHAZ” on Sunday was treated at hospital. He refuses to speak with police. Witnesses of the shooting are also not speaking & are discouraged (intimidated) from doing so.
There is still no suspect info for deadly Saturday CHAZ shooting.
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 23, 2020
ANGRY RESIDENTS
Some residents are furious that Mayor Jenny is just now going to dismantle CHOPistan. How long that will take, no one knows.
“It was doomed to happen from Day One,” Matthew Ploszaj, who lives in the vicinity, told KOMO News. “No one wanted to say it, but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. It should have ended when the Car Tender got broken and the mob went down and broke his fence. It did not have to come to this.”
He’s wrong, it should have ended immediately.
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Tuscon is much better
It is his business and he has the right to move to Alaska if he wants. These politicians and city officials need to learn it is free enterprise and u have to stay fluid or u became stagnant. That includes looking out for the best interest of your employees.
Disgusting capitalist pigs! How dare they take their business and money and run? WE are the ones that made them all their money – and they are leaving us..??? I don’t understand why they would want to leave this Utopia of workers and social systems… Why? What can be better’n this??? And we now have this new CHOP area that is the idealistic nirvana for ALL people so we can share with each other…Why leave…????
Another cowardly appeaser about to be devoured by the anarchist mob.
Is Phoenix really that much better. Maybe not the same as Seattle but news reports suggests serious problems exist there also.
I believe Phoenix and Arizona itself is becoming Californicated. I would go somewhere else.
Phoenix, unlike Tucson, is no where near as bad as Seattle. Phoenix still has low cost of living and low crime. Sure, there are some libs there. But surrounding cities like Mesa (3rd largest in AZ), Chandler, Scottsdale, etc. are conservative.