Though Amazon.com’s headquarters site in Arlington, Va., known as HQ2, will not be finished for years, developers have been feverishly creating live, work, play destinations for the 25,000 Amazon workers who will descend on the area branded as National Landing.

Maryland-based JBG Smith, which is teaming up with Amazon to develop its headquarters and nearby properties, is just one of several REITs transforming the area. Work is underway at JBG Smith’s Central District Retail, which will comprise 109,000 square feet of entertainment and destination retail on Crystal Drive. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and a 17,000-square-foot specialty grocer will anchor the project, already 80 percent preleased and slated for completion in the second quarter of 2021. The development will serve “as the retail heart of National Landing and the foundation for future phases of office, retail and residential development,” said Amy Rice, senior vice president of retail leasing at JBG Smith.

JBG Smith is planning a second retail project, this one on the ground floor of the planned 1900 Crystal Drive, which Rice calls an “architecturally distinct development.” It features two residential towers and 34,000 square feet of street-level retail. “Once completed, in 2023, 1900 Crystal Drive will fill a long-standing retail and activity gap along Crystal Drive,” she said.

JBG Smith has submitted plans for six more National Landing mixed-use projects, totaling 4.5 million square feet. “This will allow us to add approximately 225,000 square feet of shops, restaurants, entertainment and other community amenities organically over time across all of our new development projects,” Rice said.

Amazon has plans of its own for ground-floor retail in the area. Schematics for its 22-story, twin-tower headquarters, to be built on 6.2 acres, show Amazon pushing most of its lobby/reception functions to the second floor, says Rice. That allows for 69,000 square feet of mostly uninterrupted street-level retail. Amazon will treat it as a worker amenity and community-connection point. “Amazon’s priority is to partner with local retail tenants,” Rice said, and that includes restaurants, services, child care and entertainment space. All will be ready when the headquarters facility opens for occupancy in 2023, she says.

Amazon will employ about 12,000 workers at the towers, just under half of the 25,000 the company has promised to hire across National Landing over roughly the next dozen years. Amazon is on track to reach 1,180 jobs in the area by 2020, up from 400 at year-end 2018, according to Arlington Economic Development. HQ2 became Amazon’s major focus after it pulled out of New York City’s Long Island City neighborhood in the face of opposition from local and state officials. The balance of the originally announced 50,000 new Amazon jobs will spread over at least 17 cities, including a hub in Nashville, Tenn.

Kimco Realty’s mixed-use Pentagon Centre, well positioned across the street from the Amazon headquarters site, is undergoing major redevelopment, including a new, 26-story residential tower featuring the now open, 440-unit Witmer luxury apartment complex plus some 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The second phase will include a 253-unit residential tower with 16,000 square feet of retail. Office space and a hotel will bring the project to 2 million square feet. Kimco CEO Conor Flynn said in 2018 that the center is in “excellent position to take advantage of the incredible growth Amazon’s National Landing headquarters will bring.”

Additionally, Regency Centers is transforming an old education building into retail and office space at its Market Common Clarendon, in Arlington. The addition, dubbed Loft Office at Market Common, will feature a 31,000-square-foot luxury fitness center, 23,000 square feet of retail and 86,000 square feet of offices.

Some projects that seem to be happening in the wake of the HQ2 decision were actually underway beforehand, says Marc McCauley, real estate development director at Arlington Economic Development. “Arlington’s structural retail demand, due to a diversified economic base and very strong demographics, [created] a river of investment decisions prior to the announcement,” he said.

Weingarten Realty is also poised for Amazon’s arrival, with a pair of mixed-use projects just two miles apart — the now open Centro Arlington, in South Arlington, and the in-the-works West Alex, in Alexandria — each anchored by a Harris Teeter grocery store. Both deals came together before the HQ2 announcement, “and that was a little good luck,” said Andrew M. Alexander, Weingarten’s chairman, president and CEO. “When HQ2 was announced, that was a lot of good luck.” What drew Weingarten to the area were the same things Amazon saw, Alexander says. “There’s great quality of life, great amenities, hiking and biking trails, an excellent transportation system and proximity to the Pentagon and Washington, D.C., in general,” he said. “Plus, it’s an area that has continued to attract new business.”

Centro Arlington’s retail includes Orangetheory Fitness, Prime Coffee and some service providers, along with 360 upscale luxury apartments. West Alex will feature 24,000 square feet of office and 102,000 square feet of retail. That included the Harris Teeter, which is pegged for a 2021 opening, plus local favorite Silver Diner, a Montessori school and more. A senior living center is on the docket, replacing initially planned offices, Alexander says.

Other national landlords active in or near National Landing are Macerich, with its Tysons Corner Center; Federal Realty Investment Trust, with Pentagon Row; and Simon, with Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. The Simon center’s multiphase makeover was completed about four years ago, adding some 50,000 square feet of retail.

Given all the new and expanded venues, it is expected that there will be a surge of restaurant and retail openings, many with local ties. Two examples are bowling concept Bowlero and The Freshman, an all-day café, as reported in Virginia Business. Meanwhile, JBG Smith is experiencing a “significant level of interest” from a wide range of retailers and eateries, according to Rice.

In addition to already strong real estate fundamentals, “the incredible Amazon story … is icing on the cake,” Rice said. “With tens of thousands of new residential units in the pipeline and a host of mass-transit improvements on tap, National Landing is on the verge of becoming the capital region’s next great 18-hour community.”