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U.S. Firms Bring Work Back Home M AY 2012 VOLUME 9 NO. 6
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Supervisors Find Success Overseas By Erika Jacobson Moore, Staff Writer It might not have reached Loudoun just yet, but county supervisors are reporting favorable results from their trips abroad earlier this month. County Chairman Scott K. York (R-At Large), who as of press time was on a second business trip to Taiwan, had nothing but positive news for the county from his time spent in Loudoun’s German sister
county, Main-Taunus-Kreis, last month. Before he left, York said there were two economic development opportunities he and Assistant Director of Economic Development Buddy Rizer would be pursuing during their trip. May 2 he called the visit a definitive success. “We do have an entity coming to Loudoun County,” York said. “We will make the official announcement later when the firm is ready to go public.”
While details about the business are not available at this time, York did say the company has looked “up and down the East Coast” for a new headquarters and decided to go with Loudoun because “out of all the people they talked to, it was Loudoun County that was working with them.” “We are excited about that,” York said. The Loudoun location will serve as the company’s headquarters for North and South America. The company will start
with a “smaller footprint” with “substantial expansion” expected by 2017, York said. The company will be moving into an existing building. Apparently the long-term work the county has put into the international company paid off even before York and Rizer touched down in Germany. York said when they arrived company representatives told them of their decision to locate Continued On Page 4
Digital Realty Breaks Ground on Expansion By Erika Jacobson Moore, Staff Writer A large group gathered in Ashburn last week to break ground on a several hundred thousand-square-foot expansion of data centers from Digital Realty Trust, a company ultimately planning to have more than 2 million square feet of space on its campus. “That will make it the most significant campus in the entire Digital Realty Trust portfolio,” David Caron, the company’s senior vice president of portfolio management, said. The next expansion of the business will include two phases, the first of which broke ground May 9. That building will be 214,000 square feet to house 10 data centers, with around 18,000 square feet of office space to support 60 employees. In addition, the construction is expected to create around 180 jobs in that field until the building is complete. “The idea is to have inventory for all customers that want to be in Northern Virginia and to never run out of inventory
for them,” Caron said. Sen. Mark Herring (D-33) and Del. Tag Greason (R-32), who were recognized for their work in getting tax credit legislation that allows data center providers the chance to combine their assets with their customers to qualify for the tax relief, said the ground breaking represents an important moment for Loudoun. “In Northern Virginia for a long time, we were the center for technology…but then the other states began to realize what we had known,” Herring said. “And they put in incentives to try to compete with Virginia. I am pleased Virginia has recognized the need to step up and provide those same incenTherese Howe/For Loudoun Business tives.” Greason noted the enormous Politicians and Digital Realty executives lift their shovels in a groundbreaking last week in Ashburn. amount of capital that would go centers would not put pressure on county are doing everything we can to make Loudinto the project, the power needed oun more business friendly,” Clarke said. for it and the tax revenue that would come roads or schools. “I was reminded of a statistic by Loudoun County Chamber of Comfrom it, while recognizing that the data Supervisor [Suzanne] Volpe, that for every merce president Tony Howard said events 250,000 square feet of data centers it like Wednesday’s were the “best part of my PRSRT STD U.S. Postage brings in about $1 million in tax revenue,” job.” PAID he said. “This amount of an investment is the Permit #78 Springfield, VA Representing the Board of Supervimost sincere form of expression of the sors, Vice Chairman Janet Clarke (R-Blue trust that Digital Realty Trust has in LoudRidge) and Supervisor Shawn Williams oun County,” he said. (R-Broad Run) made note of the $80 million Digital Realty Trust has 102 properinvestment Digital Realty Trust is making ties across the United States, Europe, in Loudoun and thanked the company for Singapore and Australia, with 19 located in its belief in the county. “I assure you we Northern Virginia.