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More corporations are eyeing locations in the Fredericksburg area

Date published: 1/31/2008

BY CATHY JETT

The Fredericksburg area will have corporations to thank when it pulls out of the current housing slump.

The type of businesses checking out locations here is shifting from retailers to those in defense, health care, professional business services and technology, said Gene Bailey, president of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance.

"I do think the region, when we come out of the housing downturn, will come out stronger than we were before, and it's going to be corporate-driven," he told a regional meeting of elected officials Tuesday at the University of Mary Washington's Stafford County campus.

The attraction for companies that offer high-paying, white-collar jobs lies in the area's close proximity to Washington and three military bases combined with a work force that includes more engineers than the Charlottesville area and Class A office space that rents for less than half of what it does in Washington, Bailey said.

"Roughly, in the last four years, the number of registered government contractors located here has gone from 325 to the low 600s," he said. "That shows you there's something going on."

The two new hospitals under construction in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties also are expected to give a shot in the arm to the area, bringing in an estimated 700 jobs and an increased demand for quality office space, Bailey said.

Currently, the Fredericksburg area has 30.3 million square feet of rentable commercial real estate, more than half of which is for retail. But the amount of office and industrial/flex space under construction is more than twice that of retail space.

To find occupants, Bailey said, his office is lobbying the General Services Administration "heavily" about moving some jobs here, and also is targeting companies whose leases are due to expire in a year.

It helps that the average lease rate for Class A office space in the area is $21.80 per square foot, compared with $48.94 per square foot in Washington and $30.40 per square foot in Northern Virginia, he said.

Still, figuring out what will convince a company to locate here can be tough. Sometimes it boils down to a matter of taste, Bailey said. He has seen CEOs pick this area because it has plenty of coastline and they like to sail.

There are some things area officials can do to help improve their localities' chances, however, he said. These include improving the attractiveness of their localities through such plans as Fredericksburg's JumpStart! program, streamlining their zoning processes, and partnering with UMW and Germanna Community College to create an educated work force.

Also key is boosting their Internet presence to give business consultants easy access to the information they need when doing location searches, Bailey said. The FRA, for example, redid its Web site, fra-yes.org, last year to put a wealth of easily searchable statistics at their fingertips.

"The main thing," Bailey said, "is to get into the hunt and provide data."

Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com

REGIONAL COMMERCIAL Retail space 874 buildings 17,547,041 square feet Industrial/flex space 232 buildings 7,728,643 square feet Office 386 buildings 5,047,625 square feet UNDER CONSTRUCTION, FINISHED 2008-09 Office space 544,440 square feet Retail space 385,000 square feet Industrial/flex space 241,824 square feet

Date published: 1/31/2008