ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Those behind the new Potomac Yard Metro station say the area is about to be transformed in more ways than one. Part of the package to lure Amazon’s new headquarters, official projections say the station will create as many jobs as Amazon is promising.
"The section between the airport and Braddock Road Metro has a lot of potential," Alexandria City spokesman Craig Fifer said.
Officials the station will revitalize the area, formerly a rail yard. Amazon has promised 25,000 new HQ2 jobs in ten years. But Alexandria City says a finished Potomac Yard Metro will need to bring 26,000 jobs on top of that.
"What we’re really talking about with the 26,000 jobs is a quarter-mile or half-mile radius around the station and Amazon is further away than that radius," Fifer said. "So, the 26,000 jobs are not really the Amazon jobs, it’s another 26,000 jobs."
Completion of the station is set for 2023. It can’t come soon enough for Amazon, set to hire 400 people by the end of the year.
For Alexandria, it means more tax revenue. For everyone, the hope is it means less traffic.
Planners forecast that beyond Amazon, one million new people will move to the region in the next 30 years.
Kanti Srikanth of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments said with more jobs on the way, transit projects should be the focus so everybody doesn’t suffer.
"It's not a doomsday scenario from a transportation perspective, not at all," Srikanth said. "I'm not worried about one Amazon coming, I'm planning on many, many more Amazon's coming."