in this issue
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2008 Year in Review |
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New businesses, development projects and awards highlight 2008 |
Although we end 2008 with some concern about the economic road ahead, it’s important to note the many successes Arlington enjoyed throughout the year. Here are just a few noteworthy events from 2008.
AED welcomed a number of new organizations to Arlington, and retained and expanded many key current tenants. AED was responsible for leasing 1,303,174 total square feet of commercial space and brought 4,017 jobs to Arlington in 2008. Major deals included Lockheed Martin, U. S. Fish & Wildlife, Cambridge Associates, Virginia Tech, Battelle, MedStar Health, Decisive Analytics, Deloitte Services, Argosy and Family Health International.
On the development side, Arlington approved a strategically important redevelopment project for the former Bob Peck site. This project incorporated 400,000 SF of office space, a new home for the Virginia Tech Research Center, plus 90 units of affordable housing. The project was enhanced by thoughtful community involvement, and some out-of-the-box thinking which combined multiple sites into one, to support a variety of uses, and act as a gateway to the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.
In July, the County Board approved Founders Square, a Shooshan Company development of the last large undeveloped site in Ballston, the current location of the WMATA bus yard. The development proposal consists of two high-rise residential buildings, a 15-story office building and a secure 13-story DoD tenanted office building. The site will also include approximately 27,000 square feet of retail space. AED worked with the Virginia Governor’s Office, GSA and the Shooshan Company to secure the project.
In August, Arlington was named the nation’s top “Wealth Center” by a BizJournals study, citing access to jobs and a highly-educated population. Despite increasing economic uncertainty, Arlingtonians did gain some measure of reassurance in October when Arlington was rated the top place to live during a recession by BusinessWeek magazine. The article quoted noted economist Stephen Fuller, and cited Arlington’s “highly educated urban community…where many residents work in government or related services” as reasons for its stability.
In October, as part of National Community Planning month, the American Planning Association bestowed one of its highest honors upon Clarendon, designating Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards as one of only ten “2008 Great Streets in America.” Visit the AED Web site for a video about Clarendon’s success and how it became one of APA’s Great Places.
Much of what has allowed Arlington to manage ups and downs in the economy continues to keep us strong today. Our dynamic and varied economic base, strong federal contracting dollars, a highly-educated creative workforce and “Great Places” to live and work will all help as we manage the storm ahead. As we said about BRAC – in Arlington, the situation is “serious but manageable.”
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