Arlington expects more tech growth in 2024
ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) — In 2023, a new Microsoft office opened in Rosslyn with more than 500 employees, and phase one of Amazon’s HQ2 was completed.
Amazon’s new offices brought in more than 8,000 employees in the county.
The next phase of the HQ2 project is expected to include what’s known as the Helix, a one-of-a-kind design.
“For phase 2, they have not publicly announced the start date. So right now, that is still pending,” said Michael Stiefvater, Director of Arlington’s Business Investment Group.
“We have some community and a collaboration space for the company that’s included in that development as well,” he continued.
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Despite the growth this year, the county is still working to fill office spaces, as many workers continue to work from home.
“It’s certainly not back to where it was in 2019, and I think we’d all be that naive if we thought that was going to occur. I think we are seeing more companies, you know, understand the value or appreciate the value of kind of in-person collaboration,” he said.
In the meantime, the county has added programs to attract startups – such as its Catalyst Grant Program.
“I’m really excited about obviously announcing our program winners. I think we have some really exciting…small businesses, some entrepreneurs that have great ideas and have…significant runways for growth. So I think it’s very exciting for us to be investing in them early next year,” Stiefvater said.
The county is also working with universities in the area, to continue expanding the tech ecosystem.
“We’re working on some efforts to, you know, really grow innovation districts or innovation corridors, both near the George Mason innovation campus and the Virginia Tech innovation campus,” he said.
“Both of those are slated to open in 2024. George Mason in the Virginia Square neighborhood at Virginia Tech, just across our border in Alexandria,” he added.
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