Economic developers shift focus to eastern Prince William

WOODBRIDGE — Under new rules adopted Tuesday, Prince William County may use public funds to incentivize economic development projects.

Property developers could now find themselves eligible for county funds to buy property to advance a project like a new office building. The funds could be used to buy property on which “modest homes” sit, as suggested by Potomac District Supervisor Maureen Caddigan. Once purchased, those homes would be cleared for larger commercial projects.

“When we spent $68 million to widen Route 1 in Triangle, we thought people would be banging down the door for commercial property,” said Caddigan.

That didn’t happen. And, despite the street outside the main gate of Quantico Marine Corps Base being widened to six lanes, it’s still a neighborhood of “modest homes” with no new commercial development.

“We need to buy up homes to developers don’t have to spend time buying these homes,” added Caddigan.

Under the old rules, incentives were awarded to individual companies, not development projects. The Brickyard company, a co-working space slated to open later this year next to the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus, received $400,000 in economic development incentives from the county.

Buying land for economic development projects is nothing new in Prince William County. It purchased 500 acres of land outside Manassas for $8.5 million in the early 1990s that today is known as Innovation Park. Over the years, and after selling off parcels of land for private firms, the land has netted a $990 million return.

Acting Prince William County Economic Development Director Chris Price, who is also a deputy county executive, said the county wouldn’t award incentives to a developer for a project without reviewing the developer’s financial statements to ensure there is bank funding for the building, and a new tenant on the hook to occupy the space.

The move is a culmination of a nearly three-year process to review the list of “targeted industries,” which is a list of industries the county’s economic development office will work to lure to the county.

In a departure from former economic development director Jeff Kaczmarek who retired last year, the office will now place a major focus on redeveloping older sites in eastern Prince William County rather than traditional “greenfield” development in the growing western side of the county.

“This is a long time coming,” said Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi. “This is a bold plan to redevelop eastern Prince William County and I just want to say ‘thank you.”

Price told supervisors that his office is developing data on what firms will be supplying materials to two other companies that recently announced major expansions — Micron in Manassas, and Amazon in Arlington.

“We are starting to investigate who are the people who supply them with resources, and to identify who are the companies that will need to move to the region to do the job,” said Price.

The hope is to lure Micron and Amazon’s friends to do set up shop in Prince William County.

“We’ve never invested [staff resoures] into that kind of analytics before,” added Price.

While the office market is waning, some of that analytic data points to thousands of government contractors that are choosing to work at home. Price hopes the county can convince them to relocate into the new Brickyard facility “to make sure they’re getting the business services they need,” he said.

“We’ve not even scratched the surface of whose out there,” added Price.

The newly approved list of targeted industries includes life sciences, proteomics, personalized medicine, cyber firms, serious gaming, and final-mile logistics.