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Amazon begins HQ2 move-in

Amazon.com Inc. is moving more than 8,000 employees into the first phase of HQ2, its $2.5 billion East Coast headquarters in Arlington’s emerging National Landing area, this week. The e-tailer plans to officially open HQ2’s first phase, Metropolitan Park (Met Park), in June and to complete its move-in by the end of the summer. However, the No. 2-ranked Fortune Global 500 company said in March that it was delaying construction on HQ2’s second phase, PenPlace.

Amazon expects to create 25,000 jobs for the project by 2030 and is eligible for up to $550 million in state grants, should it meet the required annual hiring goals and average annual wages.

“This project is extraordinary in many respects,” Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said in a statement. “It will bring us significantly closer to fulfilling the community’s vision of Arlington and National Landing as an urban neighborhood with a better balance of office, residential and retail development, more and better public spaces and more and better access for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Met Park consists of 2.1 million square feet of office space and more than 50,000 square feet of retail space housing 14 businesses, as well as a 2.5-acre park. The campus is on park to receive a LEED Platinum certification, the highest LEED certification level.

Met Park’s two 22-story, 327-feet-tall office buildings can house 12,500 employees. One tower is named Jasper, the codename for an Alexa component that provides tools for customer settings. Amazon has named the other tower Merlin, after the codename for Amazon QuickSight, a cloud-based business intelligence service product that can create interactive dashboards. The buildings have a total of 62 elevators.

A street view of Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A street view of Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com
An aerial view of outdoor space within Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An aerial view of outdoor space within Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A terrace in Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A terrace with grills in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An entrance to the first phase of Amazon's HQ2, Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An entrance to Amazon’s HQ2 offices. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A stairwell and escalator inside Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A stairwell and escalator inside Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A reception desk in Amazon.com Inc's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon
A reception desk in Amazon.com Inc’s HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon
An employee gathering space in Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An employee gathering space in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An outdoor terrace in Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
An outdoor terrace in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
Snack and beverage options in Met Park
Snack and beverage options in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A presentation room inside Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A presentation room inside Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A seating area in Met Park, the first phase of Amazon's HQ2. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A seating area in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A seating area in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.
A seating area in Met Park. Photo courtesy Amazon.com Inc.

The towers include “centers of energy,” Amazon’s term for spaces for employees to gather, including four coffee shops and three all-electric commercial kitchens. The areas are designed to handle 30% of the offices’ employee capacity, an intentional move by the company to encourage employees to “venture out into the neighborhood,” according to a news release.

The 14 ground-floor retailers include a bike shop, a dog day care, a fitness studio, an early childhood education center, a spa, restaurants and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Arlington’s Innovation Studio.

The towers have outdoor spaces within their designs: about 2.7 acres of rooftop landscaping, about an acre of green roof with native plants, two event terraces, two café terraces, one garden terrace, an urban farm and outdoor kitchens.

The public park includes walking paths, a dog run and a children’s play area and garden.

For commuting employees, Met Park has 620 bike racks, four levels of below-grade parking with 290 electric vehicle charging stations and pedestrian pathways for employees taking the Metro. On May 19, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened the Potomac Yard-VT station, anchored by Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus and two stops away from HQ2.

Construction begins on $135M Loudoun biz park’s first phase

Construction has started on the first four buildings in an approximately $135 million, 10-building business community in Dulles, project owner-developer St. John Properties Inc. of Baltimore announced Wednesday.

The project, Arcola Center, will be a 34-acre business park at the intersection of Loudoun County Parkway and Dulles West Boulevard with eight flex/research and development buildings — totaling 288,840 square feet — and two single-story office buildings, as well as parking. The office buildings will total 48,080 square feet, according to a St. John Properties brochure for the center.

“We have been active in Loudoun County for more than two decades and have delivered more than 20 buildings which serve the commercial real estate needs of more than 150 companies,” Matt Holbrook, St. John Properties’ regional partner for Virginia and central Maryland, said in a statement. “This area does not have enough of the flex/R&D product, which we are developing now, to support the local companies that need this type of building to operate and grow.”

The first phase, which is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2024, will consist of 100,000 square feet of flex/R&D space across four buildings, ranging from 22,240 square feet to 45,120 square feet. The buildings will have flexible suite sizes, and the single-story buildings have been designed to earn LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The whole center does not have a pinned completion date, since St. John Properties will continue to speculatively develop new space as it leases the first four buildings.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a zoning change for the property in January.

“Loudoun County has more than 3 million square feet of flex and warehouse space, with a vacancy rate of under 1%,” Ashburn District Supervisor Michael Turner said in a statement. “This flex/R&D product is among the main pillars of economic activity in Loudoun County, and it is gratifying to see Arcola Center moving forward.”

Founded in 1971, St. John Properties Inc. is a privately held real estate company that has developed more than 23 million square feet of flex/R&D, office, retail and warehouse space and has investments in more than 3,000 residential units. The company has more than 2,500 clients across Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

Retail/office collection in Richmond sells for $6.3M

A combined 15,994 square feet of retail and office buildings in Richmond’s West End area sold for $6.3 million in late March, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.

The buildings are located at the corner of Grove and Granite avenues, at addresses 5701-5707 Grove Ave. and 124 Granite Ave. About half of the buildings are leased, and tenants include On U Jewelry, Scents of Serenity Organic Spa and Victoria Charles Jewelry, according to Reilly Marchant from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, who represented the seller.

KLCN LLC purchased the portfolio from Muhleman Properties LLC. The sale closed on March 31, according to property records.

Chesterfield County kicks off $210M mixed-use project

Chesterfield County officials began demolition Tuesday of the former Best Products Co. Inc. building in the Spring Rock Green shopping center to clear the way for the $210 million first phase of the Springline at District 60 mixed-use development.

The 42-acre first phase of the project, located on Midlothian Turnpike off Chippenham Parkway, includes a six-story building with 27,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 300 apartment units, as well as a 150,000-square-foot corporate office building — expected to cost roughly $50 million — and a sports tournament facility with ice rinks. The county Board of Supervisors approved the plan in April 2022.

Connecticut-based developer Collins Enterprises is the developer for part of the first phase and will build the mixed-use building and a parking garage. Collins Enterprises expects the project to cost roughly $85 million and anticipates beginning development this summer, with phase one to be delivered by December 2024.

Rendering of Springline at District 60. Image courtesy Chesterfield County
Rendering of Springline at District 60. Image courtesy Chesterfield County

Remaining phases are still in planning stages, according to Chesterfield Economic Development Authority Director Garrett Hart. The county expects to have 1,200 residential units total, split between apartments and townhouses, and plans to add another office building, an extended-stay hotel, entertainment venues, a police station and a central square that could be used for festivals.

“We’re pretty much looking at phase two to … be under construction in ’25,” Hart said. “And we’re not really sure what phase two is right now. It’s definitely going to involve some more apartments, but it could also involve the hotel.”

The county EDA bought the land from Bond Cos. in 2021 for $16 million and will build infrastructure and utilities that are expected to cost $20 million or more. Chesterfield will sell the office and first residential pads to Collins in May or June for construction to begin.

Small retail tenants, like restaurants and clothing stores, have expressed interest in the ground-floor space, said Collins Principal Arthur “Art” Collins. Residential units will be mainly one- and two-bedroom units, with three-bedroom units comprising about 2%, Collins said.

Rendering of Springline at District 60. Image courtesy Chesterfield County
Rendering of Springline at District 60. Image courtesy Chesterfield County

Architecture firm Cooper Carry led rebranding for the area. District 60 will include Springline, the Stonebridge Shopping Center and The Boulders Office Park.

“I just want to have that dream one day where someone says, ‘Just meet me at District 60 and we’ll figure out what to do when we get there.’ I think you’re seeing the beginnings of that nexus between this property and across the street,” said Chesterfield County Administrator Joseph Casey.

Springline’s name comes from the Beaufont Lithia Springs Co. that sold bottled water from the nearby Beaufont Springs. James Robertson built a springhouse on the site in 1896 and sold the company to Frederick Sitterding in 1916. The company was shut down in 1940 as water treatment plants improved.

Newport News office building sells for $2.87M

A Newport News office building has sold for $2.875 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced in February.

Sashe LLC purchased the 24,526-square-foot office building at 11839 Rock Landing Drive in Oyster Point Park. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer declined to disclose the seller.

The building is currently occupied by Engineering Development Laboratory Inc., an electronics manufacturing services firm that populates and tests printed circuit boards. The company has been in the building since 2002, when it was built, and will remain there for only a limited time following the sale, Steve Patterson, EDL’s managing director, told Virginia Business.

Teresa Nettles and Clay Culbreth, of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, handled negotiations on behalf of the seller.

22 acres in Innsbrook to be developed into mixed-use

Newton, Massachusetts-based Northland has acquired 22 acres to build a mixed-use development at the “North End” of the Innsbrook area in Henrico County, from Raleigh-based Highwoods Properties.

The site is located on the north end of the Innsbrook Corporate Center, at the Intersection of Interstate 95, Nuckols Road and Lake Brook Drive. It already has 5.5 million square feet of office space, 3,400 apartment and residential units, seven hotels and 20 restaurants, according to a news release from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.

Jane DuFrane, senior vice president and Richmond market leader for Highwoods Properties, said that the northern area of Innsbrook does not have many food choices or amenities in easy walking distance so Highwoods sought a partner to develop retail. Highwoods is known for building office space , but knew this area needed to be a mixed-use community in order to help its customers retain and attract talent.

“We wanted to urbanize without increasing the traffic,” DuFrane said.

The site is zoned for up to 700 residential units (600 apartments, 100 condos), 55,000 square feet of retail and a 150-room hotel. Early-stage design and master planning efforts will begin this year, but the completion date has not been announced.

Highwoods Properties owns 12 acres adjacent to the site where it could develop 315,000 square feet of Class A office space as part of the 34-acre mixed-use development.

“The firm plans to introduce a diverse mix of retail options, including chef-curated restaurant concepts and amenity boutiques centered around activated open space, for both future multifamily residents and office tenants,”  Northland wrote in a news release announcing the acquisition.

“We’re thrilled to establish Northland’s entrance into the Richmond market with such a transformative, landmark project. Richmond, and especially the area’s numerous active suburbs, has long been a compelling target market for Northland given its consistently fervent population growth, institutional higher education ecosystem, and flourishing Fortune 500 job prospects,” Santo Dettore, associate vice president of development at Northland, said. “This site represents the next step of the Northland development platform, enabling us to leverage our extensive experience in mixed-use design and large-scale master planning to create a vibrant neighborhood for residents, employees, and visitors to the area.”

Sale negotiations were handled by Eric Robison of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group, along with David Baird and Michael Denise of Cushman & Wakefield’s Baltimore land development team.

A new look at Va. Beach’s Atlantic Park

The $350 million Atlantic Park surf park development planned for Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront will start construction in October or early November, developers told Virginia Business this week. Virginia Beach-based Venture Realty Group also shared new renderings of the project, which Venture has been co-developing with music icon and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams.

In planning stages since at least 2017, Atlantic Park is scheduled to be completed in summer 2024, said Donna MacMillan-Whitaker, co-founder and managing partner of Venture Realty Group.

The 10-acre park will be developed in two phases. The first phase calls for 120,000 square feet of mixed-use retail — restaurants, shops and admissions attractions — and 310,000 square feet of residential (310 apartments) plus 15,000 square feet of office space. It also includes an entertainment venue and a 2-acre wave lagoon. Atlantic Park’s second construction phase will be similar to its first, MacMillan-Whitaker said, and will take about 15 months after delivery of the first phase. Not many details have been publicly released yet. 

Perhaps the main attraction in addition to the wave pool will be the park’s planned entertainment venue, harking back to the property’s roots as the site of The Dome, a geodesic dome concert venue and civic center that was demolished in 1994. Acts such as The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, and The Monkees were among the musicians that rocked the house in The Dome’s heyday. Atlantic Park’s plans call for a 70,000-square foot music venue, operated by Los Angeles-based Oak View Group LLC and Live Nation.

At full capacity, with indoor and outdoor seating — when a convertible door is opened — it will seat 5,000. When it’s closed, it will seat 3,500 patrons inside. A door in the back of the venue will roll up, making it indoor/outdoor-friendly. Douglas Higgons, senior vice president with Oak View Group, said there are only about a half dozen or so similarly sized venues with indoor/outdoor capabilities around the country. The venue’s indoor area will be air-conditioned, even when the door is open for outdoor events.

“Our goal is to activate the venue and have it be as busy as possible and have as many people experience it as can be,” Higgons said.

He expects the venue to be active 150 to 200 days or nights per year, with music events making up the majority of those, though it will also be available for private and community events.

Construction crews will break ground on the entertainment venue this fall, at the same time as the rest of the Atlantic Park project, and expect to have it up and running in the second quarter of 2024, Higgons said.

At least for now, the venue is being called The Dome in a nod to the site’s storied musical past. Said Higgons: “Certainly we’re going to try to bring some of that history and make it come alive in this venue.”

But one of Atlantic Park’s biggest draws, and most unique, will be its manmade wave pool.

The surf lagoon will include wave-making technology from Wavegarden, an engineering company based in northern Spain, and will generate about 1,000 waves per hour.

Financing for Atlantic Park is contingent on final construction plans and approval by the city, which is “imminent,” MacMillan-Whitaker said.

Virginia Beach has $114 million programmed for the entertainment venue, offsite infrastructure, streetscapes and parking, with the funding from the tourism improvement program fund, according to a Virginia Beach spokeswoman. The total project cost could exceed $350 million, due to inflation and higher construction costs, MacMillan-Whitaker said.

The project is designed to draw in visitors throughout the year. MacMillan-Whitaker said the development team hopes to capture some of the artsy essence from the popular nearby ViBe Creative District.

“Between the surf park and music venue and residential and retail and restaurants,  I know it’s totally going to transform that part of the Oceanfront and really bring it back to life,” Higgons said.

Chesapeake office building sells for $11M

Investment group Gracestone Investments LLC has purchased an 81,318-square-foot office building in Chesapeake from GSI Inc. for $11 million, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced July 5.

The property, located at 850 Greenbrier Circle, is 100% leased to Canon U.S.A. Inc.

Rob Wright of Cushman and Wakefield | Thalhimer brokered the transaction and handled sale negotiations on behalf of GSI.

 

McLean-based Appian opens office in Seville, Spain

Appian Corp. opened its first Technology Innovation Center in Seville, Spain, the McLean-based cloud computing firm announced last week.

“Seville provides the ideal environment for Appian to establish its technology hub, grow our team and serve our regional customers and partners,” Víctor Ayllón, Appian’s vice president of automation, said in a statement. “The new Appian office shows our vision for Seville and commitment to the Andalusia region as we plan to double the team here in the next few years.”

The center is in the Cartuja Science and Technology Park, and Appian plans to recruit and hire locally to serve its customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to a news release. One of the company’s major customers is Spanish commercial bank and financial services company Banco Santander.

Appian incorporated its office in London in 2007 to serve overseas customers and opened its first office in Madrid in 2017. The company entered Seville in January 2020 with its acquisition of robotic process automation company Novayre Solutions.

To help Appian hire local talent, the company is hosting workshops for students with universities in Seville and the Andalusia region and sponsoring 50 people in the Sputnik Talent Program to help them develop technical skills to transition careers.

Appian, which CEO Matt Calkins co-founded in 1999 with Chief Technology Officer Michael Beckley, employs nearly 2,000 people in the Washington, D.C., area. In 2020, it logged $304.6 million in revenue and $369.3 million in 2021. In May, the company won $2.03 billion in a trade secrets verdict against a competitor, Pegasystems Inc.

Richmond office building sells for $4.9M

A 13,288-square-foot office building in Richmond sold for $4.9 million, One South Commercial announced Thursday.

Located at 4015 Fitzhugh Ave., the two-story building was built in 1954. The architecture firm 3North leases the building, which used to serve as the Boy Scouts of America headquarters.

VA Wood Properties LLC bought the property from 1501WW LLC. Tom Rosman and Ken Campbell from One South Commercial represented the seller.