Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters — known as HQ2 — in Arlington, amid the company’s largest ever cuts to its workforce.

The pause delays a multi-year $2.5 billion plan to bring 25,000 workers into Arlington by 2030, though an Amazon spokesperson told DCist/WAMU that the company remains committed to bringing those jobs to the region and the pause is not the result of any role eliminations.

It’s not yet clear when construction will resume. The spokesperson said there is no set date and said there is not a new confirmed completion date for HQ2 at this time.

The delay affects the second and larger phase of the construction: PenPlace, a planned block in Pentagon City that includes three 22-story buildings and “the Helix” conference center. Current plans call for the four buildings to span about 3.3 million square feet.

John Schoettler, Amazon’s real estate chief, said in a statement to DCist/WAMU that the first phase, a campus they’re calling Metropolitan Park, will go ahead as planned. As part of that phase, the company has hired 8,000 employees that will be going to the campus starting in June. Metropolitan Park includes two new buildings with 2.2 million square feet of office space.

“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees,” Schoettler said. “Since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit.”

Amazon first announced plans to construct a second headquarters in 2017, eventually deciding to divide the projects between Arlington and Queens, New York and hire 25,000 workers for each location. The planned waterfront campus in Queens, however, was cancelled in 2019 following overwhelming local opposition — though then governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the decision to withdraw.

When then Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced in 2018 the construction of HQ2 in National Landing — which encompasses Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Potomac Yard — he heralded it a “big win for Virginia” that would help bolster the state’s workforce and infrastructure. The project is expected to generate billions of dollars in state general fund revenues — $3.2 billion, according to an initial press release by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

At a virtual press conference Friday, Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey reiterated that he was not concerned about the delay.

“Every conversation that I’ve had with Amazon, what has been unwaveringly clear is their commitment to growing their corporate presence through HQ2,” Dorsey said. “The only scenario that I could envision that would cause me to actually have concern would be an economic catastrophe that befalls the country, the likes of which I’m not going to predict, and I’m not going to go into that headspace of fearing.”

Amazon, he said, is not an entity that is struggling. The pause does come, however, after a difficult year for the company that culminated in the laying off of 18,000 employees. 2022 saw Amazon’s stock lose half of its value — its biggest drop since a 80% decline in 2000 during the dot-com crash.

Dorsey said he was informed “recently” of the pause, but declined to specify when in a virtual press conference Friday afternoon. He said he did not have information on a new timeline.

He acknowledged that there may be frustrations from residents about the indeterminate time frame, saying the county has heard “a lot of concerns” from folks in the neighborhood about construction.

“Not with the project, not what the ultimate outcome will be, but they’ve certainly been challenged by the process,” Dorsey said. “I expect for some of our residents, they’ll look at this pause and have with it some degree of a sigh of relief, that they’ll get a little bit of a respite.”

On the other hand, Don Beyer, Democratic congressman for Virginia’s eighth district, said the construction pause is “obviously concerning” but that according to Amazon, the impact on planned infrastructure investments that are part of the HQ2 project will be “less than some feared.”

“I am told Amazon has committed to covering costs created by delays in school construction, and that the housing equity fund will be unaffected,” Beyer said in a statement. “I will remain in contact with regional officials to monitor these developments as it is clear Amazon is not immune to economic pressures. The company should promptly update leaders and stakeholders about any new major changes in this project, which remains very important to the capital region.”

This post has been updated with comment from Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey, and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).