Amazon deal rippling across Va.

Hampton Roads must seize opportunities to reap the benefits of the HQ2 project

When Amazon announced plans to bring some of its operations to Virginia, state officials insisted that the company’s decision would ripple across the commonwealth, benefiting communities far from the new campus in Arlington.

Amazon’s purchase of land in Suffolk last month suggests that’s already happening and should be seen as a welcome sign that the hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds paid to the company may yet prove to be a worthwhile investment.

Shortly before the start of the new year, Amazon confirmed it had purchased 87 acres in Suffolk for $4.5 million. A company spokeswoman declined to provide details about its plan for the property.

As the online retail giant expands its operations in the commonwealth, however, communities in Hampton Roads should be looking for opportunities such as this — a chance for Hampton Roads to reap the financial benefits of Virginia landing part of Amazon’s HQ2 project.

The Suffolk News Herald was the first to report on the land deal, publishing in December

that “Amazon.Com Services Inc. bought 94.6568 acres Dec. 9 at a cost of $4.58 million from Averitt Properties Inc. for property located at 2020 Northgate Commerce Parkway.”

The company and the city have thus far deflected inquired about how Amazon intends to use the land, but Pilot reporter Kimberly Pierceall pieced together bits of information in July suggesting the company could build a fulfillment center there.

“Who might want (land) perfectly situated near Interstate 664 and the ring that links South Hampton Roads to the Peninsula that would help ensure ‘one-day delivery,’” Pierceall wrote. “And who might need at least 820,000 square feet of warehouse with 200 spaces for semi-trucks and 1,750 employee parking spots for two daily shifts of several hundred workers, with more during the holidays?”

The purchase of this land cannot be directly linked to Amazon’s decision to create an operations hub in Northern Virginia. After all, there are more than

1.6 million residents in Hampton Roads — meaning plenty of potential customers — as well as the Port of Virginia, where so many products enter the country, so the location is advantageous regardless.

But Virginia cities and counties should expect to see Amazon’s reach extend across the commonwealth now that it intends to have 25,000 employees located in Arlington. In fact, it’s essential that they do.

Virginia made a very generous offer to the online retailer when it pitched the company on building its HQ2 in the commonwealth. Lawmakers last year approved a multi-tiered incentive package worth a maximum of $750 million over 15 years if Amazon creates 37,850 high-paying jobs, as it promised.

That equates to paying $22,000 for each of the first 25,000 jobs, which should have an average annual pay of $150,000. A second phase would provide $15,564 for each of the next 12,850 jobs at the same rate.

Arlington County officials approved another $23 million if the company meets office-space occupancy targets and agreed to provide $28 million in infrastructure improvements tied to development of the new Amazon campus.

Since the HQ2 announcement in 2018, state and local officials have sold the public on the notion that the benefit of Amazon moving to Northern Virginia wouldn’t be confined to that corner of the commonwealth.

There’s a plan to invest $1 billion in public colleges and universities to expand computer science programs and provide the tech-savvy graduates the company needs to fill those high-paying jobs. Virginia Tech intends to build a $1 billion campus in Northern Virginia as part of the project.

And those programs will have their roots in the public schools, where there are plans to strengthen and expand STEM programming to give kids across Virginia the foundation needed to succeed in a computercentered global marketplace.

The Suffolk land purchase and possible construction of a distribution center there may be another piece to that puzzle, and the cities of Hampton Roads must pursue every avenue to secure more jobs and more investment in order to reap its share of the commonwealth’s windfall.