Thursday, February 21, 2019

MoCo fumbles three more: Blackboard, HalioDX, Idemia headed to Virginia

Montgomery County officials have blown it yet again. Just three months after failing to bring 25,000 Amazon jobs to our moribund County, they fumbled the ball on three more corporate headquarters sweepstakes. Blackboard, a high-profile education technology firm, will relocate its Washington, D.C. global headquarters to Plaza America in Reston. Biotech firm HalioDX chose Richmond over North Carolina, in its final North American headquarters decision. And Paris-based Idemia, a biometric augmented identity firm, is relocating its North American headquarters from Boston to Reston, as well.

The moves will bring hundreds of additional high-wage jobs to Fairfax County, and Idemia has promised to add 90 new high-wage jobs to the new HQ. Why did both firms choose Reston over Montgomery County? The answers are the same as usual: lower business costs, and superior infrastructure access in Virginia.

Blackboard CEO and President Bill Ballhaus cited their new location's proximity to Dulles International Airport, which as I've been noting for years, has the variety and frequency of international flights and destinations international businesspeople require. Unlike Northern Virginia, which has implemented several infrastructure projects to speed travel, Montgomery County has refused to build the new Potomac River crossing that would provide direct and quick access to Dulles Airport. In fact, the Montgomery County Council is actively trying to further sabotage our outdated and incomplete transportation system, refusing to build the M-83 Highway and Montrose Parkway East, and promising to lower speed limits on all major commuter routes to 25 MPH - and secondary and neighborhood roads to 15 MPH.

The failure to attract Idemia's HQ was a humiliating defeat for a County Council that has claimed it would make Montgomery County a cybersecurity hub. Instead, Virginia's Secretary of Commerce Brian Ball was the one crowing about the Old Dominion bolstering its dominance in that field with the addition of Idemia. "We rely on innovative companies like Idemia to maintain Virginia’s position as a U.S. leader in this industry,” Ball said in a statement.

HalioDX will join almost 70 biotech firms, laboratories and manufacturing facilities at the VA Bio+Tech Park in Richmond. It's a sad reminder that Virginia is now not only handing our County Council their [briefcases] in every other economic sector, but are rapidly reaching parity with Montgomery's biotech sector. Thanks to past County leaders who served before our elected offices were seized by the Montgomery County cartel in 2002, we had a promising biotech niche in the region. Now, it's only a matter of time before even those firms begin to relocate to Virginia, once they have the critical mass of qualified workers and government incentives.

The canary in the Montgomery County economic development coal mine has been deceased for some time. Our Council not only doesn't know anything about how to attract high-wage jobs and corporate headquarters, but couldn't act even if they did. Their developer sugar daddies, who fund the campaigns of every Council member, don't want corporate headquarters taking up valuable land they could use to profit from luxury apartments.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam hasn't had much reason to smile in recent weeks, and I reckon he appreciates Montgomery County turning his frown upside down reliably several times a month. His two immediate predecessors were legendary for openly mocking Montgomery County officials for their pro-tax, anti-business ideology. By all indications, comedy hour is just getting started at 100 Maryland Avenue.

19 comments:

  1. I also moved to Reston. Bye MoCo - thanks for the memories!

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    1. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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  2. Why do you cite NoVa getting 1 biotech company while ignoring all the biotech companies that move to MoCo? There's a regular stream of companies announcing they're moving to or expanding in Rockville/Gaithersburg (not to mention Bethesda and Friendship Heights, for your other moribund blog), yet those press releases are completely ignored here. Do you only read Richmond and Reston press releases, or something?

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    1. 1:59: No major corporation has moved their HQ to MoCo in two decades. As I noted in the article, whatever head start we had in biotech - the only field in which MoCo even has a niche, while NoVa is destroying us in every other except maybe hotels - is rapidly evaporating. Virginia is catching up, and we are now even behind Culpeper and Rappahannock. It's humiliating!

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  3. Montgomery County is ridiculous.

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    1. A report done by Anirban Basu who is chairman of the Maryland Economic development commission and was appointed by Gov.Hogan believes Montgomery County and Maryland are not competitive because of "antiquated" regulations and higher taxes for corporations and top earning residents according to a Washington Post article December 3,2018.

      Also qouted in the Post article is George Mason University Professor Stephen S Fuller who says the same thing.He says losing Amazon shows that "..Montgomery county has lost its competitive edge in the region."

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  4. Agreed. Google search of new headquarters rockville found openings noted for regenexbio, autolus, infosys, cerecor and that a previous firm's move to tysons corner was now cancelled.

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  5. The only biotech company on that list, Halio DX, is only adding 20 jobs, and is moving to Richmond, not Northern Virginia, so "access to Dulles" has nothing to do with it. Richmond doesn't even have an international airport for passengers, only for freight.

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    1. 8:32: Your claim that HalioDX has only 20 jobs in its HQ is preposterous.

      Who said Dulles had anything to do with the HalioDX move? It was the lower cost of doing business, and the biotech hub in Richmond. Dulles was a factor in the two Northern Virginia HQ decision in my report, however.

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    2. So how many jobs is HalioDX adding?

      P.S.: It's a laboratory, not a "corporate headquarters".

      Your move...

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    3. 6:18: Wrong! It's HalioDX's North American HQ. You're struggling, man. Struggling.

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  6. Anyone paying attention for the last 5 years knows blackboard has been in the crapper, and their owners (a private equity firm) have been trying to sell them but can't because they're not making money. They are moving to reston because they already had an office there, and have laid off so many people that maintaining a flagship space in DC isn't financially viable. Access to Dulles has nothing to with it, the CEO is trying to spin it as a positive but it was a cost cutting measure

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    1. 5:27: No kidding - choosing Virginia was a cost-cutting measure for Amazon, too. They're hardly "in the crapper." It's a fact it costs less to locate in Virginia than in MoCo, and you get better schools and infrastructure to boot now.

      The new Blackboard HQ is totally new in a new building, not the two smaller offices (that weren't HQs) they had in Virginia previously.

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    2. “It's a fact it costs less to locate in Virginia than in MoCo”

      It’s a fact that it costs less to locate in space you already own than in new space. They had space to spare in NoVA. This is just like Gerber all over again, which moved into space it’s parent company already owned. MoCo can’t lose something it never had.

      You are generally correct that MoCo needs to do more to establish better relationships with business. But the examples you choose, and the way you present them, completely undermine your arguments.

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    3. 10:44: Whoa, you're setting a record for lies per minute here. Way more than 20 people coming to HalioDX.

      Blackboard DOESN'T OWN THE SPACE. It's a brand-new HQ, and they're moving from DC into it. They had two smaller offices elsewhere in NoVA, and those are moving into it, too.

      Examples of HQ competitions lost by MoCo officials strongly SUPPORT my arguments. MoCo CAN lose something it never had - something like $4 billion in lost wages, and $12 billion in lost economic activity FROM THE AMAZON DEFEAT ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    4. Still waiting for Dyer to cite...

      -A number for the staff at HalioDX's new laboratory in Richmond, that is greater than 20.

      -A number for the staff at IDEMIA's relocated headquarters in Reston, that is greater than 90.

      -An address of the current offices of Blackboard in Northern Virginia, that is anywhere other than Plaza America, Reston.

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