New Rural Sales Pitch: Work Outside D.C.'s Fallout Zone

Development is booming along Interstate 81 near Winchester, Va., as federal agencies move to relocate offices. (By Scott Mason For The Washington Post)

Federal officials defend the need to move as far out as Winchester. "For any government agency looking at a new facility in this day and age, of course security is going to be a priority," said Cathy Milhoan, a spokeswoman for the FBI.

This much is certain: The shift already is having a marked impact on the valley. Real estate agents and developers are buying up land along the half-dozen highways that ring Winchester in anticipation of the contractor jobs and other activity that will likely trail the federal jobs.

Next to the site of the FEMA operations center is a parcel on which Tysons Corner-based NV Commercial is building a large shopping center. Land prices are rising farther out, near one of three possible sites for the FBI campus, up the road from the Oak Grove Restaurant where singer Patsy Cline, a Winchester native, used to stop for lunch.

"A facility like this can be a market maker. Anyone in the development industry is going to be interested in that," said Joshua Gurland, a Bethesda-based real estate broker who has spent the past six months working deals around Winchester. "There's a buzz. If people aren't interested yet themselves, they're interested in finding out why other people are."

There is good reason to expect the jobs to drive growth in the area. The federal agencies expect several hundred of their employees in Washington and elsewhere to relocate for some of the positions. In theory, many of the remaining jobs could be taken by people who now live in Winchester and drive into greater Washington. But Winchester and the rest of Frederick County, Va., send relatively few workers into Washington.

That can be explained by the strong local economy. The I-81 corridor has long served as a major pipeline for goods being transported along the East Coast. That role has only increased as more truckers desert congested Interstate 95 for I-81 and as more companies have begun using Virginia's 17-year-old Inland Port south of Winchester to move goods via rail to or from Norfolk. Rite Aid, Kohl's and Red Bull are among the many companies with big distribution centers in the area.

Also fueling the local economy are Winchester's well-regarded hospital, Shenandoah University, the Apple Blossom Mall and the expanding clusters of big-box stores that draw shoppers from across the region. Most growth has bypassed the historic downtown, but even it is picking up somewhat, with restaurants and specialty shops popping up along the pedestrian mall in the center of town.

With such a tight labor market, local officials expect the new jobs to drive further population growth in Frederick County, which has grown by about 12 percent in the past five years to more than 70,000 -- nearly as fast as Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties to the east. Developers have approval to build about 10,000 more homes, mostly north of town.

To Deskins, the redevelopment director, the relocation of federal agencies to the corridor is a sign that the valley is becoming part of a unified mega-region, with Winchester as a kind of "edge city" on its western border. "The center of Northern Virginia has moved," he said. "It used to be around Springfield, but it's really moved to the Dulles corridor -- and that's only a 40-minute drive away from here."