E-Bird Daily News Brief

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Now hear this:

We hereby declare that Ye Olde E-Bird will not fly tomorrow, July 3, because the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority is closed for the Independence Day holiday. Happy 233rd birthday, USA! . . . See you on Monday, July 6th!

Hot off the presses

We told you recently that seven Fairfax County-based companies, including five federal contractors in information technology fields, are among the 100 largest African American-owned industrial/service businesses in the nation, according to the June issue of Black Enterprise magazine. The Sun Gazette picked up an FCEDA release. The Fairfax firms on the list are Thompson Hospitality, Herndon (ranked 17th), Unitech, Centreville (31st), Omniplex World Services Corp., Chantilly (47th), Comtek, Chantilly (54th); CMI Management, Alexandria (70th) and InScope Solutions, Reston (98th).

Corps values: Tysons Corner-based QinetiQ North America’s Systems Engineering Group will provide health-related and logistics support services to the Marine Corps under a three-year contract worth up to $17.4 million. Washington Technology’s David Hubler worked out the logistics to get this story online. 

Straight from the top:  Barden Gale, the new CEO of Tysons Corner-based global commercial real estate investment management company J.E. Robert, tells GlobeSt.com that the possibility of new investments exist within the next six months. Within two years, he believes, JER “will have a stabilized management platform with new investment initiatives, some of which will very probably be abroad.”  Invest some time with this story by GlobeSt.com’s Erika Morphy.

Open a new location, stat: Merrifield-based Inova Health System filed its formal certificate of public need with the state to build an 80-bed hospital on Route 50 in Our Neighboring County to the West. The proposed facility includes an emergency department, medical-surgical beds and up to eight operating rooms. Take some time to examine this story by the Washington Business Journal’s Tierney Plumb. 

Speech, speech: Tysons Corner-based Arabic speech and language solutions provider Sakhr Software announced that it acquired a provider of mobile voice-entry technology Dial Directions. Sakhr’s goal is to enable real-time speech-to-speech translation for Arabic. You could check out this press release at CityBizList.com. No translation is necessary.

Mapped out: Don't forget to check out today’s Washington Post for the “What’s Going Where” column, which notes upcoming projects in our area. Proposed projects include a 29,683-square-foot addition to a hotel on Richmond Highway in the beautiful Fort Belvoir section of Our Fair Parish.  Approved projects included construction of two office buildings and a parking garage on 10.3 acres on the west side of Springfield Center Drive and to the southwest of the Springfield Metro Center.

Boomtown stats:  The federal government and the contracting industry are among the few sectors in the area still creating jobs. For example, the Defense Department is looking for 50,000 contracting and acquisition officers as part of President Obama’s plan to reduce outsourcing. Companies such as Reston-based Achieve-it, which provides contractors to agencies, anticipate the need for staff will continue to rise.  The Washington Post employed V. Dion Haynes to work this up.

High(er) Finance: Tysons Corner-based mortgage giant (and Fortune 500 outfit) Freddie Mac announced that it would offer loan-to-value ratios on refinancings of up to 125 percent for qualified borrowers. The higher loan-to-value ratio should give homeowners – especially those in markets that have experienced sharp declines in home values -- more options to refinance. We’ll give you the option of reading Bryant Ruiz Switzky’s story in The Washington Business Journal online or in hardcopy. http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/06/29/daily58....

For the "Necessity is the mother of invention" folder: A former IBM engineer whose invention to retrofit regular cars into plug-in hybrids received a $50,000 grant, which Reston-based Palmer Labs (which will commercialize the invention) will match.  Mike Spinelli, writing on the Web site PopSci.com, got pretty inventive with this.

Grim tale: This week, Fairfax County officials confirmed that without factoring in any funding for staff salary increases or inflation, the county may need to find another $315 million in cuts or new taxes to balance its budget next year. It won’t cost you anything to read more about this at the link to Kali Schumitz’s story.  Faithful E-Bird readers should note that economic development builds the commercial tax base so the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors can fund programs and services for a growing and diversifying population.

Meaty story: Lorton-based burger chain Five Guys is looking to raise $15 million in private equity. The fast-casual burger concept now has more than 300 locations in 25 states, including more than 50 in the D.C. area. This was news that the Washington Business Journal’s Missy Frederick could really sink her teeth into.

We’d like to thank the academy: The Fairfax County Police Citizens Police Academy received "Agency of The Year" by the National Neighborhood Citizens Police Academy Association. The Academy’s "Glimpse Behind the Badge" program allows residents to investigate mock crime scenes, step inside the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and ride along with an on-duty officer. Fairfax County Police have been running the academy since 2002. The Fairfax County Times ran with this story.  Visit this link for more information about the program.

Taking a meeting: President Barack Obama on Wednesday appeared at a town hall meeting at Annandale's Northern Virginia Community College to build support for his plans for an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. Plan on reading Noam Levey's story in the L.A. Times.
 

Events presented or sponsored by the FCEDA:

Register here for the October 6 session of the "Entrepreneurship 101: Starting a Business in Fairfax County" workshop for people interested in starting a business in Fairfax County.

Ongoing--One-on-one business counseling offered at Board of Supervisors' offices. More info here.