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Amazon is reportedly planning to develop part of its HQ2 in Crystal City, Virginia. Here's why it may have been chosen by the e-commerce giant.
Amazon is reportedly planning to develop part of its HQ2 in Crystal City, Virginia. Here's why it may have been chosen by the e-commerce giant.
Jessica TylerNov 6, 2018, 23:58 IST
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After months of speculation about where Amazon would open its second headquarters, or HQ2, Crystal City, Virginia, now appears to be one of the chosen locations.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Amazon would be splitting its HQ2 development into two locations, housing 25,000 employees in each, instead of the 50,000 originally planned.
Crystal City is in Arlington, very close to Washington, DC. It has plenty of ready-to-occupy offices and easily accessible transit.
Here's what else we know about the area.
After months of speculation about where Amazon will open its second headquarters, HQ2, there appears to be a front-runner.
There are two front-runners, in fact: New York's Long Island City and Northern Virginia's Crystal City, The New York Times reported on Monday evening, saying that the decision is expected to be finalized shortly. Reports had emerged on Monday that Amazon would be splitting its HQ2 development into two locations, housing 25,000 employees in each instead of the 50,000 originally planned.
Crystal City, part of Arlington, is just a 15-minute drive from Washington, DC.
The decision is said to be so close that the city's top real-estate developer, JBG Smith, has taken some of its buildings off the market, according to The Washington Post. Officials have already started discussing how to make the announcement public sometime very soon.
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While Amazon has considered other cities, including Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas, the discussions with Crystal City were more detailed, the report said.
Here's everything we know about Crystal City as it relates to HQ2:
Amazon also plans on building a 600,000-square-foot data-center campus in Northern Virginia, in addition to its new Amazon Web Services office in Herndon, Virginia. These plans are separate from HQ2.
Power in Northern Virginia is less expensive than in other nearby areas. "Compared to the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region, commercial electricity rates in the Northern Virginia market are among the lowest," according to the cloud-consulting firm DatacenterHawk.
And it has ready-to-occupy office buildings. The HQ2 decision is said to be so close that Crystal City's top real estate developer, JBG Smith, has taken some of its buildings off the market.
