Demo work to start this month on Innovation Campus property

Construction slated for first phase of Virginia Tech's Potomac Yard project

Published January 14, 2021 by Kate Andrews

Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus will make its home in the first phase of a new mixed-use development and innovation district that JBG Smith is developing near the future Potomac Yard Metro station. Rendering by SmithGroup, courtesy Virginia Tech

Demolition and infrastructure work is set to start this month at the Potomac Yard property where the $1 billion Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is set to be built, developer JBG Smith announced Thursday.

Virginia Tech and Chevy Chase, Maryland-based real estate investment, management and development company JBG Smith, which is overseeing the 20-acre project in Alexandria, as well as Amazon.com Inc.’s East Coast headquarters HQ2 in National Landing, about two miles away, received the city’s final approvals for the 1.7 million-square-foot campus in December 2020. The project will also include four office towers and two residential buildings with retail space.

The university is set to proceed this year with construction of the first phase of a 300,000-square-foot educational and research building, which is expected to open in August 2024. The 11-story academic building will include instruction and research space for master’s and doctoral students in computer science and engineering, as well as staff and faculty offices.

“It is a testament to the importance of this initiative, and the determination of our project partners, that we were able to navigate this complicated approval process in the midst of a global pandemic,” Kai Reynolds, chief development officer at JBG Smith, said in a statement Thursday. “We are grateful to our colleagues at Virginia Tech for presenting such a bold and compelling vision for its new urban innovation campus, and to the dedicated Alexandria City staff for embracing that vision, even as the world shifted around us.”

On Wednesday, Virginia Tech announced it had received a $10 million gift from the CEO of Reston’s Octo Consulting Group, Mehul Sanghani, and his wife, Hema, both alumni, for its Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, which will be renamed the Sanghani Center. The center will move from Blacksburg to the Innovation Campus and will be supported by $7.4 million of the gift. An additional $1.5 million will go to a food access program for students.