In a stunning display of corporate strategy that could be described as either visionary or a very expensive shrug, Amazon announced it is pausing the construction of the second phase of its Arlington, Virginia headquarters, a project creatively dubbed HQ2 because apparently HQ1 was already taken. The pause comes just as the first phase, called Met Park, is preparing to welcome the first employees in June, which suggests that for now, Amazon’s big dreams might be confined to just the one park.
The second phase, known as PenPlace, was expected to include three office towers and the crown jewel of corporate ego architecture, The Helix, a twisting glass structure that was essentially Amazon’s attempt to out-Guggenheim the Guggenheim. The Helix promised flora-covered spirals and walking paths that looked better suited to a video game cutscene than to a functioning office environment, although it now appears the only thing spinning might be the PR.
Amazon spokesperson John Schoettler assured the public that all this is not a retreat but rather the result of careful planning, strategic thinking and probably a lot of staring at budget spreadsheets now containing more red than a Valentine’s Day sale. He cited the need to evaluate space needs against a backdrop of more remote work and cooler hiring trends, which is corporate-speak for “we might have overestimated how many people want to commute to a giant glass swirl during a pandemic and after several rounds of layoffs.”
To date, the company has laid off more than 18,000 employees and recently added another 9,000 to that tally for reasons that were communicated with all the warmth of a Terms and Conditions pop-up. These decisions were, the company insists, difficult but necessary, which is typically what companies say right before sending everyone a generic email and changing the office keycard access.
Local officials tried to put a brave face on the indefinite pause, with Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey expressing understanding while sounding like a man who had just been ghosted at a real estate closing. State Senator Adam Ebbin looked on the bright side, saying Virginia’s agreement with Amazon is structured so that incentives are tied to actual job creation, not promises or PowerPoint slides. So at least taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for a skyline full of unrealized dreams and empty helixes.
As for the community, reactions ranged from mild disappointment to dramatic sighs, especially from local businesses that had invested in the assumption that thousands of tech workers would soon be flooding local lunch spots and Whole Foods. It now seems those quinoa salads and artisanal coffee lines may stay mercifully short for a while longer.
Amazon says it’s still committed to Arlington and still plans to hire 25,000 workers there over time, though one imagines the timeline has shifted from “imminent” to “eventually” to that hazy corporate horizon known as “some time in the future, when the vibes improve.”
Because nothing says commitment quite like a paused construction site and a derailed Helix.