Innovation Campus, Other Amazon HQ Impacts Coming To Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Arlington County and the City of Alexandria announced Tuesday, Nov. 13 the new Amazon headquarters site is in a newly branded neighborhood called National Landing, which includes parts of Pentagon City and Crystal City in Arlington and Potomac Yard in Alexandria. While Amazon itself will be headquartered in Crystal City, the bordering City of Alexandria will undoubtedly feel the impacts of Amazon's investments and approximately 25,000 workers. The biggest news for Alexandria is that a new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Potomac Yard comes along with the Amazon development.

"Alexandria is an exceptional place to live and work, and we welcome partners who are committed to our continued growth and prosperity," said Mayor Allison Silberberg in a joint Arlington-Alexandria news release. "We are thrilled to be able to partner with Virginia Tech as they deliver a world-class innovation campus in Alexandria’s portion of National Landing."

Virginia Tech and the state are partnering to fund the graduate campus, aimed at developing high-tech talent for Amazon and other local companies. The campus will offer master's and doctoral level programs aimed to fit the industry’s high-demand areas. Degree programs and research opportunities will focus on computer sciences and software engineering, offering specializations in high-demand areas such as data sciences, analytics and collective decisions, security and the Internet of Things, and technology and policy.

"As Virginia’s land-grant institution, we stepped up to claim our role of driving economic development by leveraging our strengths in technology and engineering and building on our strong partnerships in Washington, D.C.," said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in a statement. "The Innovation Campus will bring together the highest-caliber students, world-class faculty, smart ideas and forward-thinking companies."

SEE ALSO: Amazon Lands $819M In Incentives To Put HQ2 In Crystal City

Amazon's new headquarters selection also brings news of increased state investment in developing tech talent at the K-12 level. Alexandria and Arlington schools will get new computer science related resources, which includes: ongoing professional development for current and future teachers, high-quality curriculum and related resources, summer and after-school programming, and career exposure and work-based learning opportunities in high-demand fields. The resources will also become available across Virginia schools.

The announcement spurred concerns about traffic and transportation in a region already plagued by congestion. Arlington and Amazon said in a statement they are investing $570 million in local transportation projects in response to the anticipated growth. The projects are part of already Arlington County Board and Alexandria City Council's approved long-term capital plans. These projects include rail connections, transit facilities, multi-modal streets and transportation technology serving the National Landing site.

The state plans to invest up to $195 million for new or expanded transportation projects. The state funding will allow a south entrance addition at the Potomac Yard Metro. A previous plan to scrap the south entrance due to delay and cost concerns sparked outrage among business and residents that banked on being near the entrance.

Other projects include improvements to Route 1 in Arlington County, a pedestrian bridge from Crystal City to Reagan National Airport and a transitway expansion for Pentagon City, Crystal City and Potomac Yard.

Given Amazon's impacts on Seattle's housing market, the future of affordable housing will be a continuing discussion going forward. The two jurisdictions said in the news release both will fund affordable housing and public infrastructure through revenues from Amazon's presence. The communities could invest $150 million over the next decade to preserve 2,000 to 2,400 affordable and workforce units for Alexandria and the Crystal City, Pentagon City and Columbia Pike areas of Arlington.

Alexandria, Arlington and Crystal City developer JBG SMITH partnered during Amazon's search process for the second headquarters. There were 20 finalists, including Fairfax-Loudoun Counties, DC and Montgomery County, Md.

Image: Reed Saxon/Associated Press file photo