According to The Washington Post, Amazon wants to swap a donation of $20 million to the Arlington County Affordable Housing Investment Fund in exchange for building a bigger headquarters than local zoning allows. Other tech giants including Microsoft, Google and Apple have made similar and larger contributions to the same cause on the West Coast. Arlington's housing fund typically works with between $14 million and $16 million annually from the county government and $5 million to $6 million in loan repayments from developers.
The affordable housing proposal has been long awaited by Arlington residents, who worry that the arrival of thousands of well-paid Amazon employees in coming years will greatly ratchet up rents and housing costs. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The company plans to create 25,000 jobs and invest more than $2.5 billion in building its headquarters in the Pentagon City and Crystal City neighborhoods over the next decade. Amazon chose Arlington for its home just over a year ago and has been working to establish ties to the community.
“This opens up a lot of opportunities for us,” Christian Dorsey (D), chair of the Arlington County Board, said of the affordable housing money. “It provides us with the possibility to maybe invest in land for affordable housing. . . . It’s an extremely significant amount.”
He brushed aside comparisons to the money dedicated in Seattle and Silicon Valley by other tech firms. “As long as they’re a healthy company, they will be part of this community for a long time,” Dorsey said. “They offered this in good faith with what they’ve said all along.”
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