Back in 2017, Amazon announced a big contest. The goal was to see which local government would throw the most tax incentives at them in exchange for the grand prize, the company putting their “second headquarters” in that community.
After more than a year of nonsense, the ultimate winner was declared: National Landing, Virginia.
If you’ve never heard of that particular location, don’t feel bad. None of us living around here had either.
When the name “National Landing” was announced on November 13, 2018 for the Amazon HQ2 launch, it was met with significant confusion, and mockery1 since locals had never heard this name before and did not feel that “National Landing” was a real place. Prior to the Amazon announcement, “National Landing” was not used by locals.
Anyway, with Amazon opening the first building in their HQ2 project last week, I thought I would take advantage of a pleasant spring Saturday to walk through the area. I never found the actual address, but it was an enjoyable morning anyway.
At the top, someone is trying to apply the “National Landing” brand but it’s hard to tell if anyone outside of marking departments is going to use it.
Lots of construction going on all over the area, including this building which will house a graduate education center for Virginia Tech University.
Four Mile Run, which empties into the Potomac River on the other side of those trees in the distance, offers a little bit of nature in the middle of this expanding wanna-be city. It’s too bad that they haven’t yet provided easy pedestrian access to the river itself.
For as long as I’ve lived in this area, traffic through this area has been messy (at best). And parking ain’t cheap. Fortunately, there are now plenty of public transportation options. If people would only use it instead of insisting on a car.
Apartments and offices with stores on the ground floor. Just like in a big city. Someday maybe National Landing will become a real place.
1. “Mockery” is probably an understatement.