The Amazon-Met Park Plan: Planning for Construction in the Next Two-Dimensional Campus of HQ2 at Peculiar Park
The company will be bringing workers back to the office for three days per week in May. According to Bloomberg, Amazon told Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey that it “would proceed this year with permitting on the second phase of HQ2,” which indicates it could kick off construction on the second phase next year.
“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit,” Schoettler said.
Schoettler added that Amazon has already hired more than 8,000 employees at the headquarters and the company is excited to welcome them to the first phase of the new campus, dubbed Met Park, this June.
Amazon ultimately picked New York and Virginia for its new headquarters after a year-long search, but later scrapped its plans for New York after facing backlash from members of the community.
Amid a downturn in the tech industry driven by a shift in pandemic demand and broader economic uncertainty, a growing number of tech companies are rethinking their real estate footprint and investments. Microsoft, Meta, and other Facebook-parent companies have recently announced plans to cut back on their real estate holdings.
From Atlanta, where Microsoft paused its development of a new campus, to San Francisco, where businesses say they are facing the ripple effects of remote work, those changes can be heard across the country.
Some community members have said the tech pullback feels like “broken promises” and raised concerns about the potential fallout from these moves in their neighborhoods.
The Times of Arlington: On the Future of the Crystal City Project, Amazon’s Promise to Bring High-Paying Workers to Virginia and the Impact on the Local Economy
Amazon has pledged to use the project, the first phase of which already dominates the Crystal City neighborhood in which it is located, to eventually bring at least 25,000 high-paid workers to Virginia. Arlington and other cities, including Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, competed to win the project in part to secure a tranche of elite workers and associated tax revenue. It’s not known how many people or new tax bucks Amazon will bring to Arlington.
HQ2’s first phase, known as Metropolitan Park, will open on schedule in June of this year, Amazon says. But the company no longer has a date for construction of the larger second phase and its signature swirl, all of which was originally planned to include about 2.8 million more square feet of office space and 115,000 square feet for retail.
That ratio could theoretically change. A construction pause will allow the company more time to study how its space can best be used. The company ended its entirely remote work policy and will require all of its employees to be in the office three days a week on May 1. The regime change is going to change the way employees use the office spaces.
The job cuts were part of a broader cost-cutting move to trim down its growing workforce amid more sluggish sales and fears of a potential recession. Many tech companies, which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years, have also trimmed their workforce.
Amazon’s First Optimal Performance in the Last Three Years: Earning $34 Billion and Closing of Five Whole Food Supermarkets
Goldsztejn said the company is going to move ahead with work on the construction in Virginia later this year, including applying for permits. The timing of the second phase is still being determined. The company had previously said it planned to complete the project by 2025.
Amazon has laid off over 18,000 workers in January and halted construction due to the cost-cutting measures it has taken. Despite posting better net sales during the holidays,Amazon had one of its lowest profitable quarters in years. It earned $0.3 billion for the quarter, down from $14.3 billion at the same time in 2021, and posted its first net loss since 2014 at $2.7 billion.
CNBC reported that Amazon will be closing eight Go convenience stores in Seattle, New York City, and San Francisco. Amazon first announced that it would shutter some of its physical stores during its earnings call in February, while CEO Andy Jassy indicated that Amazon will also slow the expansion of its Fresh supermarkets until it finds a format that “resonates with customers.”