GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS ARE DRIVING COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

March 18, 2010 12:36 am

BY BILL FREEHLING

Retail leasing may be sluggish in Stafford County, but the government-contracting business continues to power the commercial real estate market.

Defense and homeland security contractors--as well as related government agencies--have been steadily expanding in Stafford over the past couple of years in anticipation of the roughly 2,700 new military jobs coming to the Quantico Marine Corps Base in 2011 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure decisions.

About 1.4 million square feet of space has been or is being built in Stafford for the defense and homeland security sectors over the past two years, according to data from Stafford's Department of Economic Development. About half of that is the 719,000-square-foot BRAC building now under construction on Telegraph Road just west of Interstate 95.

The BRAC building will house investigative arms of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as other federal agencies. It's expected to be completed later this year, and the agencies are scheduled to move in by September 2011. Defense officials have said more development is expected at Quantico in the coming years.

Government contractors that service the Marine Corps and other defense and homeland security agencies have been moving in as a result. Perhaps the most visible evidence in the past couple of years is the development of two 140,000-square-foot office buildings at the Quantico Corporate Center on U.S. 1 in North Stafford near the new BRAC building.

Defense contractors have filled the first two buildings, and QCC developer the Silver Cos. is now pre-leasing the planned third 140,000-square-foot building. The Silver Cos. recently bought another 10 acres of land adjacent to the site, said Jud Honaker, Silver's president of commercial development. The company has an option to buy another 20 acres, which would bring the entire development to about 120 acres.

Silver initially projected that the QCC could include up to 1.1 million square feet of office space, but with the additional land the company now believes that could hit 1.4 million square feet. There are also discussions about retail, restaurant and lodging offerings on site.

The QCC isn't the only commercial development that has sprung up around government contractors in Stafford. The developments are mostly off Garrisonville Road, U.S. 1 and U.S. 17. The FBI, which has long had a presence in Stafford, has been expanding in developments just off U.S. 17.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com