Amazon Unveils Rendering, New Details For First Phase Of HQ2 Project
The first phase of new development at Amazon HQ2 is beginning to take shape.
Amazon, in a blog post Thursday, released a rendering and description of the first two new office towers it plans to build at its National Landing campus.
The tech giant said it filed development plans for the first phase this week. The plans call for two towers reaching 22 stories with 2.1M SF of office space and 50K SF of new retail space. ZGF Architects designed the Phase 1 buildings, which are planned to achieve LEED Gold certification.
The first phase of HQ2 would also include 1.1 acres of new public open space where Amazon envisions having a farmers market, a dog park and other recreation areas. Amazon also plans new cycling infrastructure, including 600 bike parking spaces and a new portion of the cycle track along South Eads Street.
The buildings would be constructed on the a piece of the Metropolitan Park development site that currently consists of two vacant warehouse buildings near the Pentagon City Metro station.
The Metropolitan Park site is one of the two properties JBG Smith is selling to Amazon in an agreement it reached last month. The deal, which also includes the nearby Pen Place site, is expected to come out to $72/SF based on the 4.1M SF of development potential. JBG Smith said it plans to time the closing of the sales with separate acquisitions to execute 1031 exchange deals, and it expects the Metropolitan Park sale to close this year.
JBG Smith is also partnering with Amazon as the developer, property manager and retail leasing agent for the HQ2 campus. While the new buildings go through the planning process, Amazon plans to begin moving this year into 585K SF of leased space in JBG Smith-owned Crystal City buildings.
Amazon Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities John Schoettler, in Thursday's blog post, reiterated Amazon commitment to employ 25,000 people at the National Landing campus, and he said HQ2 should spur significant additional job creation.
"We plan to invest more than $2.5B in building our campus over the next decade, driving the creation of thousands of indirect jobs in construction, building services, hospitality and other services industries across the region," Schoettler wrote.
