School leaders are about to formally ink a deal to relocate Arlington Community High School to Amazon’s HQ2 campus.
Eight months after celebrating the upcoming move, Arlington Public Schools leaders plan to sign a 30-year lease with Amazon for more than 30,000 square feet of space at 1450 S. Eads Street in the Metropolitan Park complex in Pentagon City.
School Board members will have the opportunity to discuss the lease agreement at their meeting today (Thursday). Final approval is slated for June.
The school will occupy four levels in the building, with a separate entrance. The space is being provided by Amazon at no cost — except routine maintenance and repairs estimated at $25,000 per year — as part of a broader development and financial agreement with the state and federal governments.
Space for the school initially was expected to be constructed as part of the PenPlace development, but that project has been delayed, and in October 2024 Amazon announced it would provide the school space in the existing Met Park complex.
Final design and construction modifications are nearing completion, funded by the landlord. The new lease gives the school system the ability to depart the space by giving 120 days’ notice.
One final procedural hurdle remains. The school system must obtain a special-use permit from the county government, allowing the space to be used for educational purposes.
The school system has filed the application, staff say.
Last September, school and community officials joined Amazon and other business representatives at an event marking the beginning of a year’s worth of work transforming the space for student and staff use.
Arlington Community High School serves about 300 students, most beyond traditional high-school age and immigrants or those whose native language is not English. Both daytime and evening classes are offered in order to accommodate students’ work schedules.
It began life in the 1980s as the Arlington Mill High-School Continuation Program, taking its current name in 2016 when it moved to a standalone building adjacent to the Arlington Career Center on S. Walter Reed Drive.
After that building was razed to make way for the new Grace Hopper Center, the high school relocated to leased space in a Ballston office building at 4420 Fairfax Drive.
That Ballston building itself is slated for redevelopment, with the school system’s lease set to expire in September.
