JBG Smith Properties (NYSE: JBGS) has paid $25.3 million for licenses to use small parts of a new class of wireless spectrum to set up a 5G internet network in National Landing, home to Amazon.com Inc.'s second headquarters and Virginia Tech’s innovation campus.
“We pursued ownership in spectrum to accelerate the roll-out of a ubiquitous 5G network in National Landing,” JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly said in a press release. “We are eager to attract best-in-class service providers, so that our customers — the people that live, work, and play in National Landing — have the connectivity tools needed to innovate in an increasingly digital and flexible post-Covid economy.”
National Landing is the branded amalgam of Crystal City and Pentagon City in Arlington and portions of Potomac Yard in Arlington and Alexandria. It was pitched as part of the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) HQ2 bid to unite the areas that would be most impacted by the company's arrival. JBG Smith is the dominant landlord across the area. The Crystal City Business Improvement District has been renamed the National Landing BID.
The Covid-19 pandemic did not stop the Federal Communications Commission's summer auction of the rights to use certain portions of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, a portion of the wireless spectrum freed up for the creation of 5G networks — faster internet networks for specific geographic areas, such as real estate developments, college campuses or portions of cities.
The JBG Smith licenses will span more than 16.2 million square feet of mixed-use development in National Landing and Potomac Yard. In National Landing alone, the real estate investment trust owns 6.2 million square feet of office space and 2,850 units of multifamily, and it controls 6.9 million square feet of additional development opportunity, the company said in a press release.
It is unclear when such a 5G network would be up and running in National Landing. I will update this article with any timeline information from JBG Smith.
But the push for faster internet capabilities is due in part to the company’s desire to attract cutting-edge tenants and to lay the foundation for a broader “smart city,” said Evan Regan-Levine, the executive Vice President of strategic innovation at JBG Smith.
“Our investment in next-generation connectivity infrastructure will further cement National Landing as a premier global destination for entrepreneurs, universities, and global technology companies to ideate, innovate, and scale globally.” Regan-Levine said.
