The market there “is growing at a far more healthy clip than the rest of the contracting world,” said Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of research and analysis services at Input.
The small city has fewer than 200,000 residents and about 400,000 total in its metro area but is home to Redstone Arsenal, where key Army offices for aviation and missiles are located, as well as NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
The Defense Department’s ongoing base realignment program, dubbed BRAC, is sending even more potential work to the area, as it relocates both Army Materiel Command and much of the Missile Defense Agency’s staff.
The BRAC initiative is expected to add about 4,200 employees in the Huntsville area, said John Southerland, spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County.
Now, companies are increasingly seeking information about the Huntsville-based opportunities, Plexico said, driving Input to prepare its new report and to host a breakfast there last month outlining the work available.
The city is already home to well-known contractors such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Boeing. But smaller firms and subcontractors continue to move in. Tysons Corner-based information technology firm MicroTech, for instance, opened its doors there in August.
Tony Jimenez, the company’s president and chief executive, said Huntsville seemed an “obvious fit” as a place the company could expand and attract a quality workforce.
The new office has made “it a little easier to market our solutions and our services,” Jimenez said.
Audio Video Systems, a Chantilly-based small business that specializes in designing and installing integrated audio and video at facilities such as command centers, opened its new, 10,000-square-foot Huntsville location last month.
In its announcement, the company said it decided to expand in Huntsville after being selected to work on Army Materiel Command’s new headquarters.
“It’s becoming a contracting center that not only has people moving there but sprouting new businesses that can thrive in that environment,” said Plexico.
Huntsville still represents a small portion of federal spending — about 4 percent of federal contracting dollars and about 16 percent of defense and aerospace spending, according to Input’s analysis — but the recent BRAC moves suggest those numbers will continue to grow.
Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia-based real estate investment trust that specializes in large office parks next to government agencies, is banking on it. The company last year announced plans to partner with an Alabama developer to build a 4.6 million-square-foot business park in Huntsville.
Though Jimenez said his company has successfully attracted employees for its Huntsville positions, he noted that hiring is becoming more competitive.
“It’s getting tougher,” he said. “We’re not the only ones moving in.”
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