BRAC Employment Boom Could Hit Springfield

Four major development projects that are underway or soon will be finished promise to forever alter Springfield.

Three developers and the Inova Health System are preparing for an unprecedented boom in employment in which an expected 18,000 military, federal and contracting jobs will come to the area this fall.

Setting the stage for growth is the federal Base Realignment and Closure process. In September, 8,500 jobs from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency will move to Springfield's former Engineer Proving Ground, which now is known as Fort Belvoir North.

The agency already has begun moving some employees into its new 2.4 million-square-foot campus at Fort Belvoir, which will gain about 6,400 workers on its main campus in September as part of BRAC.

As a result, many federal contractors will move their operations to Springfield. One of their destinations is the 1.3 million-square-foot Metropark Complex.

The 37-acre facility, near Beulah Street and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway, already is home to SAIC Inc., DCS Corp., Calibre Systems Inc. and CGI Group Inc., which soon will be joined by fellow government contractor VSE Corp.

VSE is moving its headquarters from the Huntington area, said Marc DeLuca, a spokesman for ING Clarion Partners, the owners of Metropark.

VSE is contracted to move into a new 95,000-square-foot-building by early 2012. The company will occupy the entire building, which is nearing completion, DeLuca said.

Another 330,000-square-foot building is under construction within the Metropark complex, he said.

The new and existing buildings within the complex originally were built by ING Clarion Partners on speculation. DeLuca said the risk was a calculated one.
"I'd like to tell everyone that we were really brazen to do it, but it really has been a no-brainer," he said. "Every building that we have started building on [speculation] has turned out to be 100 percent leased by the time we are done with it." Clarion did not disclose its development costs.

Monument Realty also is preparing to build on speculation in the same area of Beulah Street and the parkway, Monument co-founder Michael Darby said.
Pending approval by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Monument plans to build a 13-acre, 875,000-square-foot office park called Liberty View on the site of some former residential properties.

Liberty View will consist of "four or five eight-story office buildings with structured parking," and will have a final cost of about $260 million, Darby said.
"We don't consider it risky because of the demand we know is coming and the lack of supply that is there," Darby said.

Meanwhile, Inova Health System - which operates a facility providing emergency services and physician office space near the MetroPark and Liberty View complexes - is petitioning the county to allow it to expand because of the expected influx of workers to the area.

Inova hopes to more than double the size of its five-story, 150,000-square-foot facility, by adding an eight-story building with about the same square footage next door, said H. Patrick Walters, Inova's senior vice president for strategic planning.

"We expect a lot of increased traffic and population in the area over the next seven to 10 years, and we want to be ready for it," he said, adding that Inova has no immediate construction plans, but wants to have the approval process taken care of if it decides the time is right to move forward.
Springfield Mall owner Vornado Realty Trust also is ready to take advantage of the expected traffic and population boom. It is taking the next step toward achieving its vision for an urban-style town center development around nearby Springfield Mall.

Vornado representatives declined to comment on the company's exact plans. But, according to Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee), a 10-year redevelopment of the mall - split into four phases - is underway.
"It is a mall revitalization project that will develop into Springfield Town Center, with high-density office and residential space," he said.
Phase one, which McKay said could begin as early as next month, is an interior renovation of the mall, including an improved food court and construction of a new movie theater.

Vornado hopes eventually to add as many as 2,700 apartments, 450 hotel rooms and 1 million square feet of office space to the 78-acre site, while expanding the retail component of the area to 2 million square feet of shopping and dining, according to a 2009 county staff report prepared for supervisors.
The town center vision includes improved pedestrian and bicycle connections to the Franconia-Springfield Metro and Virginia Railway Express stations and a circulator bus service that serves the transit station, the mall area and the rest of the Springfield revitalization district.

The developer's plans include construction of a central plaza, ground-floor retail in the apartment buildings, a grocery store, cafes with outdoor seating, a health club, and basketball and tennis courts on top of a parking garage, according to the 2009 county staff report.

"We are very happy to see all this proposed new growth in Springfield," said Nancy-Jo Manney, executive director of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. "Some of it, like the construction at MetroPark, is already visible. Just seeing those new buildings coming out of the ground already feels like a rebirth for the area, and growth is always a catalyst for more growth."
Manney and McKay agree that residential growth in Springfield is still several years away but said that, with all the expected business-related development, residential growth eventually will follow.

BRAC Progress Report for 2010

For the past four years, the state of Maryland has been preparing for an influx of service members and their families as the Base Realignment and Closure effort is underway around the region.

As part of the preparation, the state established a Governor's sub-cabinet to enhance coordination within the state government.
Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown chairs the cabinet, and he joined The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris this morning to talk about the 2010 BRAC Progress Report that was released late last month.
The report notes the two broad responsibilities that the sub cabinet has taken on in order to finish the BRAC project.
Brown explained that the first responsibility is to ensure that the physical infrastructure is in place.

"That's roads, that's public transit, in some parts of the state that's water and sewer treatment plants," Brown said. "Because BRAC for Maryland isn't just Bethesda Naval consolidating with Walter Reed, but it's also growth at Fort Detrick, Aberdeen Proving Ground, at Ft. Mead and Joint Base Andrews. So physical infrastructure is very important function insuring that it's in place for the arrival of these families and jobs."
The second broad responsibility for the sub cabinet is the human capital development.

"That's making sure that our workforce is skilled to compete for these jobs that are coming to Maryland," Brown said. "So we're investing in our schools, not only in the classroom, but building more schools particularly in these BRAC growth or BRAC impacted counties. And also what we're offering in our colleges and universities, insuring that the programs are fit to support the kinds of jobs that are coming with BRAC."

The 2010 progress report comes following four years of work. Brown says the hard work of the committee has been worth it.
"When we first came in office, there was a lot of anxiety in Maryland about what BRAC meant," Brown said. "There was concerns in our communities that it would be an influx of jobs and families and it might negatively impact the quality of life in our communities because it was a rapid growth and development period. It was important for us to form the sub cabinet, to do the coordination, the planning. At the end of 2007, we published a BRAC action plan. We've had progress reports every year since to ensure that we're monitoring our progress towards these action items and identifying any areas where we might be lagging or slipping behind. Overall the process instills confidence in the Maryland public that we are ready for BRAC and we're welcoming it with open arms."
By the end of this year, most of the work of sub cabinet will be finished. The bulk of the BRAC moves will have concluded but that does not mean that the members will move on.

"The big push will be behind us as the jobs arrive by the end of September," Brown said "and the members of the sub cabinet that includes the Department of Transportation, Department of Planning, and the Housing and Community Development will continue to have BRAC coordinators within their departments and we will continue to make BRAC a priority because we know that there's still going to be a follow on work as the defense contracting community comes into Maryland. We will have resources in the departments to coordinate but we no longer see the need for the BRAD sub cabinet."

Feds Need to Kick In More for BRAC

Local officials praised a recent report calling on the federal government to pay more for BRAC-related transportation improvements, and said it was a reaffirmation that Maryland and Anne Arundel County have paid more than their fair share as new federal workers move into Fort Meade this year.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released this week said the federal government should pay for transportation upgrades around its expanding facilities much in the same way that private developers are asked to contribute to improvements near new real estate projects. The report also recommended that Congress have a special allocation to pay for short-term improvements in the most adversely affected communities, including the area around Fort Meade.

With millions of dollars in transportation upgrades needed to accommodate thousands of new workers heading into the army installation this year, local officials said the federal government has contributed far too little.
“I think [the study] just reaffirms the position we’ve had all along, that this is a tremendous challenge being posed to the locals and the state and that we’d greatly appreciate some help from the federal government as we address that challenge,” said Robert Leib, the regional BRAC coordinator for Anne Arundel County. “It’s not news to us, but it does reaffirm to us that the federal government has left the civilian localities a little high and dry.”

The NAS report was part of a wider examination of funding for upgrades near 18 expanding federal facilities as part of base realignment activities, including Fort Meade, the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the National Navy Medical Center in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir in Virginia. In nearly all cases, the NAS concluded that federal funding to accommodate the growth in workers was lacking.

Around Fort Meade, county and state officials have been scrambling to find ways to bolster road networks to accommodate new traffic. The county has partnered with a private developer to expand Route 175 from the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to Rockenbach Road, but other improvements further east near the base are only partially funded. Meanwhile, workers from the Defense Information Systems Agency began moving in last month, and will total more than 4,000 by the end of the summer. Thousands of other workers from the Defense Media Activity and the Co-Location of the Defense/Military Adjudication Activities will also come this year.

Fort Meade is also undergoing other growth from the National Security Agency, U.S. Cyber Command and the more than 80 other tenants on base. More than 40,000 people currently work at Fort Meade, and another 22,000 could be added by 2015.

The Office of Economic Adjustment reported that six intersection improvements near Fort Meade are considered “critical and immediate needs.” The estimated cost of those improvements is $671 million, with only $48 million currently funded. In addition, there are $786 million in funds for highway improvements that have not been secured. The state of Maryland has contributed about $135 million for all of Maryland's BRAC projects, including Aberdeen Proving Ground and the National Navy Medical Center, though Anne Arundel County officials have been critical of the state for not doing more to protect transportation funds.
“Any help we can get from the federal government just leverages what our own resources can do,” Leib said. “I believe that even though it’s late, it’s still welcome.”

U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), whose district includes Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground, said he would favor a one-time appropriation to fund BRAC improvements, and would push for the Pentagon to pay a fee for improvements on highly traveled roads.

"BRAC is a tremendous opportunity for Maryland as long as we protect the great quality of life that our existing residents enjoy," Ruppersberger said. "Our cash-strapped state has already made major investments. The Pentagon should contribute to this mutually beneficial effort as well."