Potomac Yard

For the Washington Metro station, see Potomac Yard station.
Potomac Yard as a rail yard in the 1980s
Potomac Yard as a mixed-use neighborhood in 2021

Potomac Yard is a neighborhood in Northern Virginia that straddles southeastern Arlington County and northeastern Alexandria, Virginia, located principally in the area between U.S. Route 1 and the Washington Metro Blue Line /Yellow Line tracks, or the George Washington Memorial Parkway, depending on the definition used.[1][2] The area was home to (and takes its name from) what was once one of the busiest rail yards on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The "Potomac Yard" name is also used to refer to several developments in the area, especially the Potomac Yard Center power center and a Washington Metro station.

In 2018, Amazon.com, Inc. announced plans to locate part of its "HQ2" second headquarters project in Northern Virginia, specifically in the newly re-branded cross-jurisdictional neighborhood of National Landing, which local and state officials said would include Potomac Yard as well as nearby parts of southern Arlington, including the Crystal City neighborhood that will be the hub of the HQ2 development.[3][4] Amazon initially planned to split HQ2 between National Landing and Long Island City, New York, but opposition from New York officials led Amazon to cancel that portion of the project, leaving National Landing as the only HQ2 site.[5]

Prior to Amazon's selection of National Landing, Virginia Tech had stated it would establish an "Innovation Campus" in the Alexandria portion of the neighborhood.[4]

  1. ^ "Geocortex Viewer for HTML5". geo.alexandriava.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  2. ^ "Alexandria's rapid urbanization". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  3. ^ "National Landing? Long Island City? This is where Amazon's headquarters are located". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  4. ^ a b Arlington County & City of Alexandria. "Northern Virginia's National Landing Selected for Major New Amazon Headquarters". Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  5. ^ Staff, NBC Washington (14 February 2019). "Amazon Kills NYC Plan, Leaving Virginia With Sole HQ2 Site". NBC4 Washington. Retrieved 2019-03-26.