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Amazon is pressing pause on the construction of the second phase of its Arlington, Va.-based second headquarters, the company announced Friday.
The delay will impact construction of PenPlace, the second phase of HQ2, which consists of three 22-story office towers and the Helix, a 350-foot tall corporate conference center and indoor garden, which mirrors the plant-filled orbs in Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Amazon acquired the land from the property from developer JBG Smith last summer for $198 million.
The PenPlace development was approved by Arlington County in May 2022 to bring 3.2 million square feet of office space, more than 100,000 square feet of retail and nearly 2.75 acres of public open space to National Landing.
The first phase of HQ2 is nearly finished, and Amazon will begin to move approximately 8,000 workers currently in the area to the two newly completed office towers in the 2.1 million-square-foot development known as Metropolitan Park.
The news of the delay, which was first reported by Bloomberg, comes as the global ecommerce giant is facing some of its deepest job cuts and seeing more employees working remotely.
John Schoettler, vice president of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities team, confirmed to the outlet that the company remains committed to Arlington, but said Amazon often re-evaluates space plans to ensure they fit its business needs.
“Since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace out a bit,” he told Bloomberg.
Requests for comment from Amazon were not immediately returned. The story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
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