Virginia Tech Innovation Campus Plans Grand Opening In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Virginia Tech is ready to introduce its first Innovation Campus building in early 2025.

Virginia Tech announced that Academic Building One of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will open in January. A grand opening will be held Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. Regina Dugan, president and CEO of Wellcome Leap, will provide the keynote address. Dugan's nonprofit supports unconventional programs with a goal of making breakthroughs in human health. Dugan is a two-time alumna of Virginia Tech and was the first woman to lead the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"We are thrilled to have Regina address the Virginia Tech community at such an important moment in the life of the university," said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus. "Regina’s visionary work has always been at ‘the center of next.’ The Innovation Campus – with its location, connections to industry, and future-focused research areas – will help Virginia Tech solve some of the world’s most pressing problems."

Corporate, government, community, and Virginia Tech leaders are expected to attend the grand opening in February. The first building of the Innovation Campus is 11 stories and 300,000 square feet. It is one of three the campus is planning on a 3.5-acre site in the Potomac Yard neighborhood. The campus will enroll 750 master's degree students and 200 doctoral degree students in computer science and computer engineering after the campus opens. The campus is currently enrolling more than 350 graduate students at Virginia Tech's Falls Church campus.

The Innovation Campus was announced in 2018 as part of the Amazon second headquarters. The first building broke ground in September 2021 and is planned as part of a larger mixed-use development by JBG Smith in Potomac Yard. JBG Smith had also proposed a Washington Capitals and Wizards arena and entertainment district with the teams' owner, but that plan did not advance as the teams will stay in D.C.