corporations that have chosen to move into the area, such as Nestlé, which recently moved its U.S. headquarters to Rosslyn. The subway system also remains
a key part of the region’s commitment to be bike and pedestrian friendly, Schwartz says, an initiative that makes it attractive to a millennial workforce.
Room to build Northern Virginia still offers plenty
of room to build, for office space and housing, says CoStar Group market analyst Omeed Naderi. He points to Tysons and Reston as two of the most active housing development areas. Julian Spiker, also a market
analyst at CoStar, says there’s also room for Amazon in the Crystal City area. “Crystal City has a lot of older office space. JBG Smith owns a lot of space and has already committed to revitalization whether or not Amazon moves there. It’s a good opportunity. One has what the other needs.” Plus, the area will have a new Metro
stop at Potomac Yard, which is expected to open in 2021. The extension of the Silver Line
Metro along the Dulles corridor, with stations from Reston Town Center to Ashburn expected to open in 2020, is perfectly timed, says Dee Owens, an associate broker with RE/MAX Gateway in Virginia. “Amazon can pull talent from farther out.” Owens worked in real estate in
Seattle during the Amazon boom and calls the experience “wonderful preparation for what I hope is going to come to us.”
One lesson she learned is that
Northern Virginia will need investors in rental properties. Some of those 50,000 jobs Amazon is promising will be high paying, Owens says, “but a lot will be jobs for people right out of college, and they’ll want to rent at first.” Seattle built a satellite campus,
she notes, which could be good news for Prince William County. “A satellite would make good business sense. You could pull in people from Gainesville and Haymarket. People will travel up to an hour to a job. If you pay enough they will go.”
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If not NoVa? If Amazon picks Maryland or the
District for its headquarters, Northern Virginia still will reap plenty of rewards, Florida says, because “a ton of residents will choose to live in Northern Virginia. There will be benefits without some of the cost. If I were Northern Virginia, I’d be hoping for one of the others and get the spillover benefits.” Corcoran agrees that Northern
Virginia will benefit if one of its neighbors is the winner.
In fact, he sees great possibilities
if any one of the three areas takes the prize. Those possibilities include extending the Purple Line light rail from Maryland into Virginia or adding another bridge across the Potomac River. “That could be the impetus to
improved transportation cooperation. Right now, that stops at the river,” he says. “Maybe it would force a conversation and evaluation to improve regional mobility.”
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