E-Newsletter

Fairfax County E-Bird for May 28, 2019

Up next in Tysons: The Meridian Group intends to submit plans to Fairfax County for new residential and retail project across Westpark Drive from its  Boro development. Daniel J. Sernovitz, in a story for Washington Business Journal subscribers, reports that Meridian purchased the National Automobile Dealers Association building for $33.7 million and an adjacent parcel for $7.25 million. The new proposal would likely be about 1 million square feet and include a mix of townhouses, apartments, condos and a senior-living component.

A boatload of reasons: Carten Cordell, in a story for Washington Business Journal subscribers, includes comment from Serco CEO David Dacquino, who outlines how his company’s $225 million acquisition of Alion’s Naval Systems Business Unit will help fill gaps in its shipbuilding capabilities. Serco stands to benefit from Alion’s expertise in ship and submarine design, systems and engineering and multiple support capabilities. According to the story, the Navy plans to authorize 55 battle-force ships during the next five years.

Tracking team: Herndon-based HawkEye 360 will provide a radio-frequency dataset to analytics firm Windward to help law enforcement groups, financial organizations and maritime insurers improve their domain awareness. Nichols Martin of ExecutiveBiz writes that HawkEye 360’s geolocation data will work with Windward’s platform to enable clients to track the location of vessels that have traveled beyond communication range.

Mining the data: National Defense magazine reports that Reston-based Leidos developed an analytics tool capable of sifting through massive quantities of data previously stored on different devices. Stew Magnuson writes that Leidos representatives discussed the Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning Microservices Platform during the Special Operations Force Industry Conference on May 21.

Look ma, no hands: From a conference room in Alexandria, Tysons-based Transurban North America employees recently monitored a full-size remote control car as it drove up and down the I-95 Express Lanes. The tests by Phantom Auto included a remote operator sitting in Transburban’s operations center with a wheel, pedals and panoramic screens and a backup driver in the car. According to the story by WTOP’s Max Smith, the backup driver didn’t need to intervene as the car navigated multiple driving scenarios on the closed lanes.

Women of science: Michelai Graham of Technical.ly/DC has the complete list of DCFemTech Award winners to be honored on June 17. The 49 honorees, selected from more than 700 nominees, include winners in code, design and data science. Award recipients were chosen based on impact on their organization, complexity of issues addressed and work within the community.

Hot market: As business continues to come to the area, the residential real-estate market appears to be heating up. Dave Facinoli and Scott McCaffrey report for InsideNoVa that homes in Fairfax County sold for an average of 99.7 percent of their listing price in April, and that many homes are selling for above their asking price. InsideNoVa based its story on figures from real estate data site ShowingTime.

Notable contract wins by firms in Fairfax County

  • Under a five-year, $74.9 million deal, Sierra Nevada will install systems that provide instantaneous visual information to assist Air Force HH-60G helicopters in takeoff, landing and terrain/obstacle detection. ExecutiveBiz
  • Under a potential five-year, $84.3 million contract, BAE Systems will provide engineering services for the Navy’s special communications mission solutions division. ExecutiveBiz
  • Deloitte secured a five-year, $63.7 million contract from the Navy to provide business and technology management-support services. ExecutiveBiz
  • Boeing nailed down a $51.5 million contract to help the Navy sustain 17 C-40A Clipper aircraft. ExecutiveBiz
  • General Dynamics will supply gun barrels to the Army and Air Force under a potential three-year, $42.4 million contract from the Defense Logistics Agency. ExecutiveBiz
  • Northrop Grumman received a $13.5 million contract extension and L3 Technologies a $13.6 million extension to further development of a low band jamming pod for the Navy’s electronic-warfare missions. ExecutiveBiz
  • ITS Agile, a joint venture between Sevatec and Infotrend, won four task orders valued at more than $8 million to provide training-program management and related services to the Federal Highway Administration. Potomac Tech Wire carried the release.

Upcoming Business Events

  • June 1: TiE DC Startup Workshop — Scaling and Growing Ventures. Government contracting leaders discuss ways to achieve goals and opportunities for founders and CEOs of 8(a), woman-owned, HUBZones and veteran-owned businesses. Click here
  • June 4: Entrepreneurship 101: Starting a Business in Fairfax County. This FCEDA workshop is for those contemplating doing business in the county. The series, which covers a full range of basics, is held in partnership with the Community Business Partnership, the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Registration is required. Click here.
  • June 26: Access to Success Multicultural Business Conference — Roadmap to Resources. Free event designed to provide practical knowledge to small, women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses. Presented by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. Click here.

FAIRFACT: With $236 billion in 2018, Fairfax County’s 10 Fortune 500 companies had more revenue than all Maryland ($85 billion) and Washington, D.C. ($140 billion) Fortune 500 firms combined.