Tech Giants Ramp Up Backing for Affordable Housing

Amazon and Microsoft, which separately have each promised to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in housing, have announced several new developments to fulfill these commitments.

Amazon, in a joint announcement with the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, said it will invest a total of $81.7 million in two multifamily projects adjacent to Metro train stations in Prince George’s County in Maryland.

Amazon will invest $56.3 million in Gilbane Development Co.’s 451-unit Atworth College Park project, on a site adjacent to the College Park, MD Metro station at the University of Maryland.

The e-commerce giant also is investing $25.4 million in The Margaux, a 291-unit development that is part of a 2.3 million SF multimodal hub that Urban Atlantic is developing adjacent to the Metro station in New Carrollton, MD.

Amazon said its investments would guarantee that new apartments from both Maryland projects would remain affordable for residents making less than 80 percent of the median income for the area for the next 98 years, according to the statement released by Amazon and WMATA.

The investments in affordable multifamily units are coming from a $2-billion Housing Equity Fund that Amazon created last summer to spur the development of affordable housing near its two headquarters in Seattle and Arlington, VA, and its new regional office complex in Nashville.

As part of its HQ2 project, which is under construction at a National Landing site that spans Arlington and Alexandria, VA, Amazon entered into a $125-million partnership with WMATA to fund transit-oriented development in the Washington DC metro area.

Amazon will occupy 4 million square feet at the HQ2 site, which is configured to let the tech giant double the size of its office footprint if needed. HQ2 is expected to employ 25,000 people. Amazon’s new office complex in Nashville will provide more than 1M SF of office space for up to 5,000 tech workers when it is completed next year.

Microsoft also has made a huge promise to invest in equity-driven economic development at the beginning of 2019, but its $750-million Affordable Housing Initiative got off to a slow start.

The pace of Microsoft’s housing initiative will intensify in 2022 with its recent announcement of an allocation of $583 million to create 9,200 housing units in the Puget Sound region surrounding Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters, including $73 million in affordable housing investments and grants.

Microsoft said it would triple the amount of its $25 million investment in an Expanded Land Acquisition program the company created in conjunction with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. The fund, now $75 million, helps developers acquire land for affordable housing developments in the highly competitive Northwest market.

Microsoft says it’s supporting organizations that are acquiring existing housing properties to convert them to middle-income housing, which it pegs at between $69,000 and $139,000 in King County, WA, citing its $17 million investment in the Renton Housing Authority’s program to buy apartments and convert them to affordable housing.

“We are hopeful that this new financial model will unlock more opportunities for developers to create housing for people such as first responders, teachers and health care workers so vital to our communities,” Microsoft said, in a statement.