Virginia Tech announced Tuesday it will build a $1 billion innovation campus in Alexandria as part of the investment package that’s bringing part of Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters to Arlington.
The 1 million-square-foot campus, to be located at 480 Swann Ave. in National Landing — the newly dubbed area that includes part of Pentagon City and Crystal City in Arlington and Potomac Yard in Alexandria — will sit fewer than 2 miles from what Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has designated as its 150-acre Crystal City site. The project is part of a higher education package that was “cited as a key reason” for the e-commerce giant’s decision, the university said Tuesday.
The campus will serve as a tech hub to support research and partnerships, graduate education and talent production, with programs in computer science and software engineering and specializations in technology and policy, machine learning and artificial intelligence. It will have a combination of research, academic and innovation space — for companies, startups and public partners — plus housing areas and collaborative spaces. And, it’s designed to drive innovation in the region.
Specifically, it will include:
* 300,000 square feet of academic space and research-and-development facilities
* 250,000 square feet of partner space for startups and companies
* 350,000 square feet of housing space for students and faculty
* 100,000 square feet of retail and support spaces