The affected space is the oldest and least desirable in Arlington, which makes it hard to lease up again.  Compounding the effect is a more mobile workforce that needs less office space, which the County estimates as reducing demand by 15-20%.  It’s a perfect storm of economic development challenges that the County is attacking in many different ways. 

 

ConnectArlington

One strategy involves connectivity.  ConnectArlington is a project to construct a 10-mile dark fiber network in the commercial district, which the County will lease at attractive rates to carriers, business and government.  Both business and government are eager for gigabit capacity to support data-intensive operations. 

 

The County’s real estate community has committed to billions of investment in bringing old office space up to today’s requirements.  The County is supporting them with a big marketing push to site selectors, with cultural programs that bring trendy restaurants, bars and galleries into former industrial areas, and with development programs like BizLaunch, with helps young companies identify gaps in their offerings and connects them with organizations that can help fill those gaps.  Its latest success is in recruiting Hispanic staff and focusing BizLaunch on the Latino business community.

 

Tandem NSI

Arlington’s traditional economic development focus was on attracting Federal agencies and big companies.  Today, it is increasingly about stimulating the founding and growth of new companies that serve the Federal government and its major contractors.  The most interesting example is a new venture called Tandem NSI, which stands for National Security Innovation.  It is a public-private venture founded by a local venture capitalist who is highly committed to the county.

 

Tandem targets program managers at Federal agencies who are intensely frustrated over their inability to create change in technology and processes.  It began by hosting workshops, funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia and organized by Arlington Economic Development, and inviting program managers as speakers on such issues a cybersecurity and Federal procurement.  These speakers attracted a mix of new tech innovators and established government contractors.  From a few hundred people at first, it now has a network of thousands and has more than a dozen Federal agencies participating. 

 

Tandem’s next venture is a service that will establish a permanent procurement vehicle Federal agencies can use to meet short-term needs for expertise and longer-term need for product development.  Right now, it can take so long to get permission to hire an outside expert that agencies typically give up and use contractors already in the system, regardless of their expertise. Tandem will make its procurement vehicle available to agencies that need to bring in the best expert in a given discipline for short periods to advise them, or for companies that can quickly create a product to solve a problem. 

 

Tandem and the County believe that this venture will make it possible to build an ecosystem of innovative companies specializing in national security, which will also help retain the agencies and contractors already there.  There are three reasons they are likely to succeed.  The concept could solve a big problem for the Federal Government.  Because it focuses on national security in a world of cyberthreats, it targets a major growth market of the future.  And it leverages in an imaginative new way the economic advantages that Arlington County has long possessed.  From these revolutionary responses to crisis, the County is laying the foundation of a new renaissance in the local economy.