DBED, Lanham nonprofit partnering for development
By Marcus Moore Published
June 15, 2006 www.gazette.net
The Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable is working with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development to encourage the federal government to build more facilities in the county.
Also under the partnership, announced last week during a Roundtable board meeting, DBED would work with the Lanham nonprofit to revitalize the area and facilities near the 6,800-acre Andrews Air Force Base in Clinton, Prince George’s County’s largest employer with more than 17,280 jobs.
Details are still sketchy, however, as both DBED and the business group expect to forge a more formal agreement "within a few weeks,” said M.H. Jim Estepp, president of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable and Andrews Business & Community Alliance, a group formed to tap the base’s economic potential.
"We’re still formulating this,” said Kirkland J. Murray, DBED director of the Capital Region. "It’s going to take collaboration for everyone to do this. It’s time and there’s a need to do this.”
Hosting more federal agencies in Prince George’s would help retain jobs and keep county residents — many of whom travel to Washington, D.C. and Virginia to work — closer to home. Last year, county officials asked the General Services Administration to develop facilities near the county’s Metro stations.
"There’s no conscious effort to bypass Prince George’s County,” said Arthur Turowski, director of leasing with the GSA’s National Capital Region. "We want to make our federal agencies aware of what’s in Prince George’s County. I think it’s a question of making our users aware of what [the county] can do.”
In March, construction began on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 270,000-square-foot Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, the first building at the 130-acre M Square research park at the University of Maryland, College Park. Also, the U.S. Census Bureau has offices in Suitland.
Murray and Benjamin H. Wu, DBED assistant secretary of business development for the Capital Region and senior adviser for technology policy, met with the roundtable three weeks ago to discuss a possible partnership.
The agreement seeks ways to bring federal agencies to the entire county, but Andrews would be a "great anchor” for an increased federal presence, Murray said.
"You have a lot of places where GSA development makes sense,” he said.
James R. Estepp, the roundtable’s director of operations, said in a press release that the base revitalization would make way for high-end retail projects and Class A office space near the base.
"GSA is the client, so we have to cater to what they want,” said Murray, who works at DBED’s Largo office.
While the county has funded road improvement projects, the revitalization of Andrews will ultimately fall beyond the realm of local government.
Infrastructure plans near Andrews call for an $83.6 million interchange near Pennsylvania Avenue and Suitland Parkway, which would involve state and federal funding. Plans in the county’s budget call for improvements at Auth Road, and a $17.5 million overhaul of Suitland Road, a main road into Andrews.
"It is evident that Prince George’s County doesn’t get its fair share of GSA facilities and we want to promote and market the facilities we have in this county,” M.H. Estepp said. "In the end, it’s going to take private development and project money to develop the areas near Andrews.”
E-mail Marcus Moore at mmoore@gazette.net.
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