Fairfax County and Loudoun County are teaming up to pitch a site near Dulles International Airport for Amazon's HQ2.
Officials from both counties have agreed to join forces and propose the 26-acre Center for Innovative Technology campus in Herndon, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The campus straddles the line between the counties and sits next to the future Innovation Center Silver Line station. Valued at around $30M, the site currently includes the 173K SF CIT building, with the rest of the land undeveloped.
The counties plan to offer the site to Amazon, along with two nearby parcels. The tech giant is seeking a location with 8M SF of development potential. It plans to invest roughly $5B and says it will create 50,000 jobs.
The counties' decision to narrow their focus on the CIT site comes at the expense of other potential landing spots for Amazon, such as Tysons. One Tysons developer with a large site, Cityline Executive Vice President Donna Shafer, told the Washington Post she was disappointed the county would take options off the table in this way, adding Cityline still plans to propose the site on its own.
While the CIT proposal represents regional cooperation between two adjacent counties, several other D.C.-area jurisdictions are also submitting proposals of their own. The District, Prince George's County, Montgomery County, Arlington and Alexandria all plan to throw their hats in the ring for Amazon HQ2. Regional groups have proposed the idea of a joint Greater Washington bid, an idea that has support from some local officials and opposition from others.
