Followups – June 2019

Amazon unveils initial plans for HQ2
Seattle-based Amazon has un­­veiled preliminary plans for its second headquarters in Arlington (HQ2).

In a blog posted in mid-May by John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities, the company said the first phase of construction will include the redevelopment of a block of vacant warehouses into two, 22-story office buildings with 2.1 million square feet of space.

The project will include 50,000 square feet of street-level retail space, with shops, restaurants and a daycare center. The plan also includes 1.1 acres of open space designed for a variety of uses, including a dog park and farmers markets.

Metro stations are near the property, which also has access to bus lines and a Virginia Railway Express station. 

Virginia Business’ January cover story explored how Virginia landed HQ2 in a bidding war involving 20 cities and regions throughout the country.

Union rebrands as Atlantic Union
In late May, Richmond-based Union Bankshares Corp. rebranded the banking company and its subsidiary, Union Bank & Trust. The new name is Atlantic Union Bank.

The name change resulted from two recent acquisitions, Reston-based Access National Bank and Richmond-based Xenith Bank. The deals extended the bank’s reach into Northern Virginia and North Carolina, but also put Union in markets with banks using similar names.

In an interview with Virginia Business appearing in its April issue, the company’s CEO, John Asbury, noted that 13 other banks use the Union name in the U.S.

The Access acquisition gave Union statewide reach and raised its total assets to nearly $17 billion. Asbury said in the interview that the changes have turned Union into the first Virginia-based, statewide, regional bank in the commonwealth in nearly 20 years.