Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Northrop Grumman Moving East

According to this front page story by Dana Hedgpeth and Thomas Heath in The Washington Post this morning, Northrop Grumman “plans to move its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington area by 2011, solidifying the growing importance of Washington as a center for the defense industry and other businesses.”

As I said before, compared to most parts of the country, we have it good.

No doubt Dick Story and his team are working hard to entice this corporate plum to Howard County. The competition with DC and Virginia will be intense, not to mention the competition from other Maryland jurisdictions.

Still, Howard County offers an active option to Northrop Grumman. Not only is Howard County close to an important customer at Fort Meade, it also has the best public school system in the state and compared to Montgomery County at least, our housing costs are much more reasonable.

Sadly, Columbia Town Center is not likely to be among the sites that the company would consider. The master plan is still awaiting approval and it would likely be 2012 before any new building would be ready to accommodate them even if it does get approved. This is yet another reason why this plan needs to be approved now, not later as some critics would prefer.

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