Amazon Buys HQ2 Development Site For $155M
The land sale that will make way for the first phase of Amazon HQ2 development has closed.
An Amazon subsidiary Jan. 15 acquired the 6.2-acre Metropolitan Park site in Pentagon City from JBG Smith for $154.95M, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The transaction comes as Amazon last month began work on the site, where it plans to build two 22-story office towers with ground-floor retail. ZGF Architects designed the project and Clark Construction is serving as general contractor.
JBG Smith, which will stay on as Amazon's development partner on the project, announced in April the parties had reached an agreement on the sale, but it was waiting to find an acquisition it could use for a 1031 Exchange before closing. In November, it bought the F1RST Residences apartment building near Nationals Park for $161M and said it plans to use it as part of the exchange.
The April sale agreement included the nearby 10-acre Pen Place where future phases of HQ2 built, and the parties agreed on a $294M price for the combined properties. The Pen Place sale is expected to close next year.
Amazon also signed 585K SF of leases in JBG Smith buildings in Crystal City, where it has already begun moving in workers. The tech giant said Dec. 27 it had moved 400 employees into the leased space, and it expects to reach 1,600 employees by the end of this year. Amazon aims to move into the two new office towers by 2023.
