WBJ: COPT Lands Amazon for Ashburn Data Center

The regional business publication identifies the online retail giant as anchor tenant.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. will serve as the anchor tenant for Maryland-based Corporate Office Properties Trust’s (COPT) 34-acre data center site near Redskins Park, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal. COPT announced this past week that it purchased the site near Loudoun County and Gloucester parkways in Ashburn from St. John Properties for $14 million, with plans for a little more than 300,000-square-feet of data center uses. COPT’s first phase includes a 200,000-square-foot building.

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Virginia General Assembly

Amazon Sales Tax Loophole Nixed Starting in 2013

Online retailer avoided Virginia's sales tax even though it has presence in Loudoun.

By Christine Stoddard and Daniel Lombardo Capital News Service RICHMOND – Bid farewell to tax-free buys from the world’s most popular online store. Amazon.com, the Seattle-based e-tailer of books and other products, next year will begin collecting and paying Virginia state sales tax under an agreement announced by Gov. Bob McDonnell. McDonnell made the announcement as the General Assembly gave final approval to Senate Bill 597, which expands on an existing state law requiring online businesses with facilities in Virginia to pay the state’s 5 percent sales tax. “This bill helps to ensure that online retailers with a physical presence in Virginia are treated the same as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers who are already required to …

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Ashburn Author Advancing in Amazon Competition

Local author's young adult novel speaks to all kinds of young people.

Things are going well for Ashburn resident Kamichi Jackson’s writing career.  Her second book, K My Name is Kendra has advanced to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition in the young adult category, and she has high hopes it may go farther.  “It’s a novel written in the first person about a girl going through an undiagnosed depression,” she said. “Because she’s not getting the treatment she needs, she’s unable to cope when a number of things come at her, and she finds herself facing them alone.” Jackson grew up in Connecticut and New York, but relocated to Ashburn about 10 years ago. Her novel takes place in Northern Virginia. “I believe an author should write what they know, so the character lives in this area…

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