Fairfax County E-Bird for January 7, 2020

Jobs are job number 1: Economic growth in the Washington area has been heavily concentrated in Northern Virginia, and the divergence has widened in the past two years, writes Robert McCartney of the Washington Post. Northern Virginia’s share of new jobs in the region jumped from 52 percent to 71 percent from 2017-18. Job growth in Northern Virginia began well before the Amazon HQ2 decision in Arlington and includes the influx of major corporate headquarters such as Hilton (Tysons) and Volkswagen Group of America (Herndon).

Great Scott!: Lennar Multifamily Communities is under contract to buy a 1.3-acre piece of the Scotts Run mixed-use site in Tysons from CityLine Partners, and the team filed plans for a 26-story, 447-unit apartment tower. The project is located about a half-mile from the McLean Metro Station, one of the four Tysons stops that opened in 2014 and spurred the wave of mixed-use development in the area, Bisnow reported.

Another towering decision: Sweden-based Skanska is investing $221 million to develop and build The Heming, a 28-story, 410-unit luxury building in the aforementioned Scotts Run development. The Heming will also include 38,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant and retail space,  according to Multifamily News.

Startup surge: Reston-based analytics software developer QOMPLX (fka Fractal Industries) was ranked as fifth-highest and Herndon-based satellite operator HawkEye360 as seventh-highest in a list of “11 D.C. Startup Fundings Above $50 Million in 2019,” compiled by DC Inno. The publication noted that the Washington area had eight startups get at least $30 million in funding in 2018, so 2019 saw more companies getting more funding.

Rainmaker recognition: Victor Hoskins, president and CEO, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority was featured in the “Rainmaker” category of Virginia Business magazine’s list of “the 100 people to meet in 2020.” Also spotlighted on the list of 100 were Fairfax County-based Kathy Albarado, CEO, Helios HR (Reston); Anna-Maria Schneider, senior vice president of industry-government relations, Volkswagen Group of America (Herndon); Sonu Singh, CEO, 1901 Group (Reston); and Bryan Hill, Fairfax County Executive. Virginia Business featured the list.

Guard-edly optimistic: Speaking of featured business leaders, a new list of “new guard” Washington, D.C.-area executives included a number from Fairfax County companies including: Serene Almomen, CEO and co-founder, Senseware (Tysons); Brendan Bechtel, CEO, Bechtel (Reston); Matt Calkins, founder and CEO, Appian (Reston); Mac Curtis, CEO, Perspecta (Chantilly); Mike Baird, founder and CEO, Avizia (Reston); Amy Gilliland, president, General Dynamics Information Technology (Falls Church); Joe Fluet, founder and CEO, MAG Aerospace (Fairfax); Kyle Schoppmann, executive managing director and Mid-Atlantic market leader, CBRE (Tysons); Mary McDuffie, incoming CEO, Navy Federal Credit Union (Vienna); Daniel Hanks, general partner, Lavrock Ventures (Tysons); Kimberly Roy, CEO, Hitt Contracting (Falls Church). Washington Business Journal compiled the list.

SOC it to me: Reston telemedicine provider SOC Telemed obtained $15 million in fresh funding for a potential acquisition. The company has grown largely by snapping up other players in the space, reported Sara Gilgore in the Washington Business Journal.

New score: Reston-based Comscore will provide Gray Television with measurement services for 83 of Gray’s local television 93 markets. Potomac Tech Wire picked up a release.

Hyper, in a big way: Leidos will acquire Alabama-based Dynetics, a provider of research and national security services to the government, in $1.65 billion deal. The purchase will provide Leidos with a foothold in the emerging hypersonic, directed-energy weapons and rapid-prototyping markets,  according to the Washington Business Journal.

Up in the cloud: Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft secured separate contacts to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provide environmental data sets for public access through the use of cloud computing platforms. GovConWire carried the release.

(Block)chain reaction: Fairfax-based The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council awarded a team of Intel, Leidos and First Genesis with the “2019 Audience Choice Award” in recognition of their collaborative work on a blockchain-based approach to sharing data across electronic record management systems, ExecutiveBiz reported.

Leapfrog laurel: Reston Hospital Center earned a Top General Hospital designation from The Leapfrog Group, a watchdog organization that reviews heath care safety and quality across the U.S., Reston Patch reported.

Parks, central: The Fairfax County Park Authority is planning creative ways to carve out space for parks in Tysons, with a goal of about 1.5 acres of parkland for every 1,000 people, and one acre of parkland per every 10,000 employees, wrote George Kevin Jordan in a Greater Greater Washington piece.

Notable contract wins by firms in Fairfax County

Lockheed Martin received a potential 13-year, $7 billion contract modification to support the Air Force fleet of F-22 Raptor jets. GovConWire

General Dynamics NASSCO won a potential $132.2 million contract to help the Navy modernize the USS Mason guided-missile destroyer. GovConWire

SOS International (SOSi) received a $124.2 million contract modification to continue providing life-support and security services at a military installation located in Iraq. GovConWire

IndraSoft won a $95 million deal from the Air Force to provide development, security and operations tools, pipeline, and platform integration and licensing services. Potomac Tech Wire picked up a release.

National Aerospace Solutions, a team led by Bechtel, received an $88.5 million contract modification to help the Air Force support operations at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. GovConWire

Intelligent Waves won a $43 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the Department of the Interior. Reston Now

Featured business events

January 22 — The Silver Line and Your Bottom Line: Leveraging Growth with Metro Expansion. Part of the Business Education Series presented by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Click here.

February 4 — Entrepreneurship 101: Starting a Business in Fairfax County. The FCEDA presents monthly workshops with our partners: the Fairfax County Government, Fairfax County-based Community Business Partnership, the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Click here.