Amazon is tapping the brakes on its $2.5-billion HQ2 second headquarters project in Arlington County, Va., announcing an indefinite delay to the start of the program’s 2.8-million-sq-ft second phase, known as PenPlace.
Insisting that the move is unrelated to staff reductions announced by the company earlier this year, John Schoettler, Amazon vice president of global real estate and facilities explained in a statement that the scheduled June 2023 completion of the first phase—a two-building, 2.1-million-sq-ft campus called Metropolitan Park—will provide ample space for the more than 8,000 employees already hired for HQ2, envisioned to eventually host 25,000 technology and corporate jobs.