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3 Counties, 3 Salesmen Share 1 Goal
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After offering a projection that Fairfax's population will increase by 200,000 over 20 years, he deadpanned, "If you went to school in Prince William County, that's 10,000 a year."
Noting that 19 percent of Fairfax's roughly 100 million square feet of office space is vacant, Gordon said, "If you went to school in Loudoun County, that's 19 million square feet."
Rosenstrauch -- the last speaker -- struck back, asserting that Loudoun will become a major scientific research center when the Howard Hughes Medical Institute opens its sprawling campus in Ashburn next year.
Nodding in the direction of Gordon, Rosenstrauch said: "I don't know, Jerry, maybe we'll be able to do that 19 percent [calculation], after all."
Turning serious, the trio downplayed the rivalry among their counties to attract businesses.
"Rarely do we compete against our neighbors," Briley said. "Rarely are they competing against us. We're competing with Charlotte, Atlanta, Ireland and Puerto Rico. We're competing with Maryland."
He quickly added: "Occasionally, we do compete with Loudoun and Fairfax."
Gordon played up the region's strength in creating jobs.
"There are 51 major metropolitan areas in the United States, defined as a million or more residents," he said. "Of those 51, 48 had net job losses in the first three years following 9/11. Two -- Atlanta and Philadelphia -- basically broke even. Atlanta, I can see. Why anybody would go to Philadelphia, I don't know! Only Northern Virginia had a net job gain. We had a 36,000 net job gain in that period of time."
Gordon attributed the gains largely to companies that do business with the federal government, particularly in the defense sector.
"One of the early strategies of the [Fairfax ] Economic Development Authority -- very, very clever -- was to locate next to Washington, D.C.," Gordon said with a thin smile. "A brilliant strategy!"
For decades, Fairfax cast a giant shadow over lesser-developed Prince William and Loudoun. But in recent years the shadow has shrunk as homebuyers and companies alike have looked to the west and south for more space and less expensive (though by no means inexpensive) land.
