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Amazon HQ2

Amazon Opens HQ2’s First Phase in Virginia, With Capacity for More Than 14,000 Employees

Amazon’s Met Park opened in Arlington in May 2023. Its capacity exceeds 14,000 employees, but that figure is not an opening-day headcount.

By TheFinanceBase Team 1 min read
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Amazon’s first HQ2 phase, Metropolitan Park (Met Park), officially opened in Arlington, Virginia, in May 2023. The often-cited figure of more than 14,000 refers to the site’s employee capacity—not the number of people who were working there on opening day.

What Amazon opened in Arlington

Amazon announced the opening in June 2023, saying Met Park had opened the previous month. The first phase comprises two 22-story towers with 2.1 million square feet of office space, according to Amazon’s HQ2 project overview.

Met Park also includes public-facing features: parks and playgrounds, retail from 14 locally owned businesses, a half mile of protected bike lanes, and additional pedestrian walkways, Amazon says.

What “room for 14,000 employees” means

The more-than-14,000 figure describes how many employees the Met Park space can accommodate. It is not an opening-day headcount. In March 2023, Amazon said it had hired more than 8,000 people for HQ2, but that earlier hiring figure likewise does not establish how many employees were present when the offices opened.

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Amazon’s real estate chief, John Schoettler, said the company was shifting the groundbreaking of PenPlace, HQ2’s planned second phase, because Met Park could accommodate more than 14,000 employees. The Associated Press carried his statement on March 3, 2023, when reporting that construction of the second phase was being pushed out. The report does not establish a definitive current construction date.

Met Park is not all of HQ2

Met Park is Phase 1, not the completion of the broader HQ2 development. PenPlace is the planned second phase. Arlington County says Amazon selected Arlington for HQ2 on November 13, 2018, and describes the wider project as a major economic development commitment. The county’s overview is available at Amazon in Arlington.

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Amazon’s later employment figure

In an August 2026 community update, Amazon said nearly 8,500 employees worked at its second headquarters. That is a company-reported figure, attributed here to Amazon; it should not be treated as an independently verified opening-day count. The update is at Amazon in the community: Service, community, and commitment at HQ2.

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