While lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate new ideas for pumping life into the nation's sluggish economy, economic growth outside their office windows remains strong in the Greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Despite a third straight year of falling stock prices, the region's largest employer, the federal government, appears immune to layoffs and spending decreases common to typical industries during tough times.
In addition, companies looking to increase their presence are benefiting from increased defense spending in Washington and an abundance of available office space created by the dot.com crash, as well as extensive downsizing in the airline and telecommunications industries.
The region's largest project is a $425 million investment by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. to build a new insulin manufacturing plant in northern Virginia's Prince William County.
There's even more growth further north in Fairfax County.
Home to seven Fortune 500 companies, Fairfax County has had recent commitments from a trio of government suppliers: BAE Systems North America, STG Inc. and Titan Corp.
BAE Systems, a defense and aerospace contractor, invested $51.6 million to create its new Integrated Systems business unit in Reston, creating 1,000 new jobs by the fourth quarter of 2004. The company is leasing a new facility near Washington Dulles International Airport.
"Along the Dulles Corridor a slew of office buildings were built to serve primarily the airline industry, as well as telecommunications and dot.com companies," said John Measell, a spokesman for BAE Systems. "We know what happened to those industries … so there's now a lot of available office space."
With its headquarters just outside the beltway in Rockville, Md., BAE Systems North America's primary customer is the U.S. Department of Defense. The Integrated Systems center will specialize in intelligence processing and exploitation, imagery, geospatial processing and 3-D visualization for the DoD and other government agencies.
"Our primary reason for picking Reston was most of the customers for that business are in the Washington area, and specifically in northern Virginia," Measell said. "Secondly, the type of employees we're looking to hire need to be very skilled professionals — systems engineers, software engineers and people involved in systems architecture design. To some extent, due to the demise of the dot.com companies, there were plenty of in northern Virginia. There's an available talent pool."
BAE Systems received a $50,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist with public infrastructure, while the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide work force training services.
STG, Titan Add Jobs to the Region
STG Inc., a government information technology, scientific and engineering services provider, will create 700 jobs through a three-year, $15 million investment.
"We are in the process of deciding if a corporate campus would be more economical than buying pre-built real estate," said Kristin Taylor, corporate marketing manager of STG. "If we decide to build, we'll have to make that decision within the next year."
The company is looking at locations in Tysons Corner and near Dulles Airport, in addition to its current headquarters in the Fair Lakes area of Fairfax.
Following a seven-year, $533 million contract from the National Security Agency in 2002, Titan Corp. will lease two new buildings in the area.
The San Diego-based company, which provides information and communications systems to U.S. intelligence agencies, will occupy a $26 million facility under construction in Annapolis Junction's National Business Park. The facility will accommodate 600 workers.
In addition, the company will lease 282,000 square feet in Reston for another 1,000 employees. Titan plans to occupy both locations by spring 2004, said Wil Williams, vice president of corporate communications for the company.
Adding a German Flavor to the Mix
Fairfax County is home to more than 220 foreign-owned companies, including 20 from Germany, giving it the largest concentration of foreign-owned firms in the region.
The latest German-owned company to expand in the county is Deutsche Post Global Mail, the largest shipper of U.S. business mail internationally, which recently completed its new North American headquarters in Herndon.
Two other German companies chose Howard County, Md., located in the northern part of the Greater Washington area, for their recent expansions.
Neschen AG, a world leader in image protection films and document conservation, located its North American headquarters in Eldridge, and is in the second phase of construction on a 100,000 square foot facility.
The expansion will add the manufacturing of self-adhesive film to the facility, bringing total employment to 70.
And Rohde & Schwarz, a supplier of communications and test and measurement equipment, recently announced its new North American headquarters would be located nearby. The company expects to add 35 new employees.
Dan Perkins
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