3 Counties, 3 Salesmen Share 1 Goal

Economic Developers Play Down Any Rivalry

Martin J. Briley, director of the Prince William County Economic Development Department, trumpeted a planned $50 million luxury waterfront hotel and conference center on the county's Cherry Hill peninsula.

"It'll have a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course," he said.

Larry Rosenstrauch, director of Loudoun County's Economic Development Department, spoke of the recent trend of international companies moving to Leesburg.

"Surely, Leesburg has the International House of Pancakes," he said with a smile. "But you wouldn't have thought that international businesses would be there . . . [such as] companies from Germany in computer science."

And Gerald L. Gordon, who heads the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, boasted of his county's corporate diversity.

"Black Enterprise Magazine lists the top 100 African-American-owned technology businesses in the United States," he said. "Seven out of 100 are in Fairfax County."

Three counties, three salesmen, speaking one after another at a recent luncheon hosted by the Committee for Dulles, a 39-year-old group that promotes business around the Washington region's largest airport.

"The Larry, Curly and Moe show," Rosenstrauch joked later.

Rosenstrauch, Briley and Gordon are hardly the Three Stooges, of course. Each has been a key figure in attracting businesses, large and small, to their counties. Taxes paid by the companies they have attracted have helped support such vital public services as schools and police and fire protection.

In many ways, they are fierce competitors, though, and they couldn't resist poking fun at each other in their speeches at the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott.

Briley -- first up -- muttered something about helium, implying that Gordon, who runs Northern Virginia's largest economic development department, is full of hot air.

Gordon -- up next -- suggested that the Loudoun and Prince William school systems aren't up to snuff.