Prince William Shifts Strategy For Struggling Office Park

Today, empty barns share the 1,500-acre office park with a few government contractors, a Comcast Corp. calling center that is in Covad's former building, American Type Culture Collection and the university. Not including the George Mason campus, there are slightly more than 400,000 square feet of completed office and technology space, compared with the 500,000 to 700,000 square feet that the consultants once set as a goal to reach in 2001. But there are commitments for more than 1 million square feet more office space.

County officials are working with the park's tenants on a master plan that will be presented to county planners and supervisors in July. The plan will include retail and services, such as restaurants and dry cleaners, for the park's occupants.

Nearly 126 acres of the park have been cleared, the red dirt primed for construction of an Eli Lilly and Co. insulin plant. When Eli Lilly announced its plan to build the plant three years ago, it said it would employ 700 people earning an average annual salary of $44,400.

In exchange for that $425 million project, the state and county offered Eli Lilly about $7 million in economic incentives. But the pharmaceutical giant, citing the increased cost of building materials, has yet to begin construction. The company said it now expects to start work on the building this summer.

There are also plans for an engineering technology company that works with the defense industry, a biotechnology company that makes cell cultures and a company that cleans electronic circuit boards before they are installed in cars, aircraft and military equipment.

The biotechnology manufacturing company, Mediatech Inc., plans to build a 100,000-square-foot facility and employ about 200 people when it opens, within two years. In exchange, the state and county have offered economic incentives worth about $800,000.

Smaller firms have not been given such incentives, but land is cheaper than in counties closer to the District, and that has been enough of an incentive for several companies and for the FBI.

The General Services Administration agreed this month to pay $4 per square foot for the 15 acres that will be FBI's future site. Area real estate agents said the market rate for such property in Prince William County is about $5 per square foot.

Local real estate brokers have long grumbled that the county offers land for less than the going rate, but most agree that Innovation at Prince William has helped attract business to the county.

"That is probably a little bit below market, but obviously the county has been trying to get occupants for that park," said John M. Weber, co-founder of Weber & Associates Realty Inc.

For companies seeking a place to build, Innovation at Prince William offers not only the lure of price but also of size.

That was part of the appeal for Zestron America, said Harald Wack, executive vice president. The company, which cleans circuit boards, purchased nine acres in the park and will move from Ashburn.

"To find nine acres in Loudoun County is rather difficult these days," Wack said.