Author: Charity W.

In November 2018, Amazon announced that it had selected Arlington County from more than 230 jurisdictions in America as their new headquarters, commonly known as HQ2. This announcement capped a 14-month process that had galvanized Northern Virginia localities to form a multi-jurisdictional partnership in their bid for the headquarters. An article by Northern Virginia Realtors recently reported that Arlington County Board has unanimously approved the County's proposed direct financial incentive to Amazon. This is an annual pay-for-performance grant that is valued at approximately $23 million tied to the company's meeting target of occupying at least six million square feet of office space over the next 15 years. Arlington County Board chair, Christian Dorsey, said that this performance agreement will be a long and productive partnership between Arlington and Amazon. "I view this agreement as a new model of economic development, where most resources are devoted to improvement in infrastructure and developing human capital," he said. Arlington County also committed to using the portion of the new increment revenue generated by the arrival of Amazon within the existing Crystal City, Potomac Yard, Pentagon City Tax Increment Financing (TIF) area to make strategic infrastructure investments in and around National Landing. The TIF revenue is estimated to be around $28 million over 10 years. 3 New Investment Opportunities for Arlington 

1. Technology- As part of its incentive package, the Commonwealth of Virginia proposed over $1 billion for a Tech Talent Investment Fund. This fund will produce 25,000 additional bachelors and masters degrees in computer and science-related fields throughout Virginia. The Commonwealth will also provide new resources related to computer science education statewide that will be accessible to the Arlington and Alexandria public schools. These resources will include professional development for current and future teachers, high-quality curriculum-related resources, summer and after-school programming for students, and meaningful career exposure and work-based learning opportunities in high-demand fields.
2. Transportation- The Commonwealth will invest up to $195 million of non-general fund money in new or expanded transportation projects to improve mobility in the region. The planned investment will include New entrance to the Crystal City Metro Station; Improvements to U.S. Route 1 in Arlington County; Pedestrian bridge from Crystal City to Reagan National Airport and a Transitway expansion supporting Pentagon City, Crystal City, and Potomac Yard in both Alexandria and Arlington.
3. Affordable Housing- With the new revenues generated by Amazon, Arlington and Alexandria will be able to fund affordable housing, workforce housing, and public infrastructure. Together, the two communities plan to invest at least $150 million over the next decade in affordable housing. This will result in the creation and preservation of 2,000 to 2,400 affordable and workforce units in and around the Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Columbia Pike areas and throughout Alexandria.

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