Amazon Celebrates Grand Opening Of HQ2's First Phase In Arlington

ARLINGTON, VA — Amazon celebrated the grand opening of the first phase of its second headquarters, or HQ2, in Arlington on Thursday, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and top local officials. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos did not attend.

The first phase of the HQ2, known as Metropolitan Park, includes more than 2 million square feet of office space, 50,000 square feet of retail space and a 2.5-acre public park with amenities for the community, including protected bike lanes and walking paths, a dog park, children’s recreation area, a community garden, public art installations and a central green.

The VIPs and invited guests were greeted by the Alexandria City High School's marching band as they entered the large meeting room where the celebration was held.

"I want to thank everyone from the broad Amazon family for believing in Virginia, for investing in Virginia, for partnering with Virginia, and for delivering," Youngkin said in his comments at the event. "There are lots of times when there are promises made. But the most important thing is when promises are kept."

Youngkin also thanked Amazon for the millions of dollars that the company has committed to nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C., area, as part of its move to the region. "$160 million is an extraordinary amount of money, and it's an extraordinary representation of what Amazon stands for," the governor said.

Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said the county's partnership with Amazon "has been an extraordinary multiyear relationship that serves as a world renowned model of public-private collaboration."

For decades, Arlington has been carefully planning for growth, Dorsey said.

In 2018, when Amazon selected Arlington, "we were ready for all the reasons you've heard before — Amazon wanting to be able to develop best-in-class facilities in attractive neighborhoods that facilitate multi-modal active lifestyles with easy access to the assets of a vibrant region where talent exists," Dorsey told the audience. "Amazon found what it needed here in Arlington and in the national capital region."

While the company celebrated the grand opening of the first phase of its HQ2 on Thursday, Amazon said in March that it is pausing construction on its second headquarters in Arlington as the company reassesses its office needs amid ongoing job cuts.

Met Park’s two 22-story buildings — named Jasper and Merlin — stand 327 feet tall and include 200,000 cubic yards of concrete. Construction at Met Park began in early 2020. Thursday's event was held in the Merlin building.

In 2018, Amazon announced that Arlington would be home to its second headquarters. The $2.5 billion project is slated to bring more than 25,000 jobs by 2030 and support thousands of indirect jobs across the entire region, according to Amazon.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who was unable to attend Thursday's ceremony due to his work in the Senate, played a role at the state level in attracting Amazon to Arlington. The state committed in 2019 to give the company up to $750 million in subsidies over 15 years for new jobs it was creating in Arlington.

In a statement Thursday, Kaine said he remembers participating in the announcement in November 2018 that Amazon was coming to Virginia, due in large part to the state's "high-quality education system" and "our talented workforce."

"And here we are four-plus years later, and the dream is coming to reality," the senator said. "Amazon is known globally and so their choice of Virginia was a validation of our state as an innovator and an education state, but then once they made the choice of Virginia, that sends the word to others that they should choose Virginia, too."

At Thursday's event, Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy and community engagement, said he was one of the Amazon executives who worked on the search for a location for an HQ2 in 2017.

"During our search, we assigned secret project code names for each city, using the names of our team members' dogs. Northern Virginia was 'Project Cooper,' and Cooper is the name of my dog," Huseman said.

In 2018, Huseman said he stood at the same spot where the first phase of the HQ2 now stands to announce that Arlington would be the future home of Amazon's second headquarters.

"It's incredible to see just four-and-a-half years later this beautiful, sustainable building on that exact spot," he said. "And, by the way, you can find Cooper on the dog wall in the lobby, just one of the amazing features of this new building."

Youngkin said that when a company names a project after a dog, that project should win. "And I'm really glad that Cooper won," he said.

After the ceremony, Amazon employees took Youngkin and the elected officials on a tour of the HQ2 building called Merlin. With employees roaming the hallways, the officials got to see Amazon HQ2's cafés and meeting rooms, along with an urban farm on the building's 15th floor terrace.

The two HQ2 buildings will eventually house 12,500 employees.

Amazon is hosting a community day outside Met Park — at 510 14th Street South — on Saturday, June 17 for the public to come visit and enjoy a farmer’s market, a DJ, photo booths and a children’s play area. There will be a brief ceremony at 10 a.m., with local officials celebrating the official opening of the 2.5-acre park, followed by the community day activities.

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