Virginia Tech Innovation Campus celebrates grand opening in Potomac Yard neighborhood

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After years of planning and construction, Alexandria’s Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Potomac Yard celebrated a grand opening today (Friday).

The Virginia Tech campus broke ground in 2021 and opened to students in January. A three-building campus is planned, with the first building coming online being an 11-story, 300,000-square-foot academic building that visitors toured today as part of the grand opening.

“I have been waiting nearly five years to say these words: we are open” said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus.

The grand opening was a mostly cheerful gathering of academic and government — federal, state and local — officials.

“We have a full house because we have an extraordinary statement to make today,” said Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “Innovation is alive and well, not just in Virginia, not just in the mid-Atlantic, but across the United States and it’s happening right here at the Innovation Campus at Virginia Tech.”

Several times recently, Potomac Yard has been the scene of rare bipartisan partnership between Youngkin, a Republican, and Democratic local and state leaders — thought beyond the friendly smiles that didn’t stop a few Democratic speakers from dropping a few barbs at the Trump administration.

Senator Mark Warner said the future of national security would center around a race for AI and energy, saying it would “determine who wins in the 21st century” but said that also requires federal support.

“We have to acknowledge the elephant in the room,” Warner said. “The current administration is making a huge mistake in saying, even though Congress has mandated these funds for research and development, to arbitrarily cut those. We have to put more than words behind that, we have to put money behind that.”

Senator Tim Kaine said the new campus’ proximity to the Pentagon exemplifies the type of innovation the United States needs — though the school’s relationships with the military-industrial complex was part of what spurred on protestors earlier in the meeting. Elected officials repeatedly praised the opportunities the new campus will bring both to Alexandria and to the state at-large.

“I am so excited about today,” Del. Charniele Herring said. “This state-of-the-art facility stands as a testament to Virginia Tech’s and Alexandria’s partnership and commitment to foster innovation, education and economic growth in the Commonwealth.”

Youngkin and local leaders previously celebrated the opening of the Potomac Yard Metro station nearby in 2023 and, later that year, came together again to welcome the Washington Capitals and Wizards to a new Potomac Yard arena. Those plans soured and State Sen. Scott Surovell briefly poked fun at the scenario.

“When I was a kid, I drove up and down this road a million times, it was a sleepy rail yard,” Surovell said. “Now look at it: it’s a center of housing, a center of retail, a center of entertainment… almost more entertainment.”

When that produced some audible groans around the audience, Surovell joked, “I was part of that; I tried to help.”

On the Alexandria side, local leaders expressed excitement not only for what the Virginia Tech campus represents by itself, but the opportunities it can bring to the Potomac Yard neighborhood.

“Words cannot express the joy and excitement that every Alexandrian in this room and in this community is feeling right now as we celebrate this grand opening,” said Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins. “We are celebrating six years of watching and waiting as we saw dirt toil, the cranes emerge, the walls built, and this beautiful building come to life. We are celebrating what is possible when community and government and industry and academia come together with a bold new vision for the future.”

As is the case at many similar ribbon cuttings, some of those who worked hardest on the projects stood or sat in the back of the room, away from the spotlight. Karl Moritz, Alexandria’s director of Planning and Zoning, told ALXnow the project is the fulfillment of over 20 years of development planning around the Potomac Yard neighborhood.

“This is the culmination of over two decades of planning,” said Moritz. “When we were here for the announcement, Mayor [Justin] Wilson said we had big plans for Potomac Yard, but even our wishes at the time weren’t this big. To have that actually come to fruition… it’s really incredible.”

Moritz said the hope is the new Innovation Campus can be a catalyst for more growth around the Potomac Yard neighborhood.

“I’m confident and bullish on Potomac Yard,” Moritz said. “It’s true that, in this day and age, you need multiple catalysts to make things happen, but now we have two really great catalysts in place: the Metro station and the Virginia Tech campus. Higher education and high quality transit have been shown over and over again to be effective catalysts for future development and I’m very bullish on the plan that they have.”