High-Tech Hub Still a Work in Progress

In Prince William, Innovation Park Adds 2,000 Jobs but Eli Lilly's Departure Signals Stalled Growth

Ten years ago, Prince William County set out on an ambitious plan to convert 1,500 acres of dairy farms into a life sciences and high-tech business hub. The Innovation at Prince William business park was expected to generate high-quality jobs and create a more urban feel to the bedroom community, and help the county put its stamp on the Washington region's economic boom.

By some measures, the county's efforts have yielded success. Innovation, on the western end of the county, has attracted about $503 million in investment and 2,057 jobs from businesses and organizations that have located there or plan to move in soon, according to the county's economic development office.

The FBI is building its Northern Virginia field office there, bringing 300 new jobs; and George Mason University broke ground last week on a $25 million biomedical research lab funded by the National Institutes of Health. On Sept. 1, a biotech company, Mediatech, moved from Herndon into new offices at the business park, adding 202 jobs.

Yet about half the land the county purchased in 1997 is still undeveloped and the park's trophy occupant, Eli Lilly, pulled out last January. The economic development department hasn't attracted any widely recognizable company names to Innovation since it lured American Type Culture Collection from Rockville as its anchor business 13 years ago. Now the business park is a patchwork of office complexes surrounded by empty lots, with a mix of companies that include a waste management firm, an insurance broker and a cable television call center.

The economic development officials and regional developers say it is too early to judge the success of Innovation. High-tech and biotech centers like the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and Shady Grove Road in Montgomery County, they say, are examples of places that took many years to attract a critical mass of businesses. They say the county is only beginning to bear the fruits of years spent getting roads into Innovation, passing pro-business tax and zoning laws and getting the word out across the country via the county's $2 million economic development program.

"This is not a short-term play, this is a long-term play," said Martin Briley, the executive director of the county's department of economic development. "Synergistic growth will occur over the next decade or two."

The mixed progress of the park illustrates the challenges of luring companies to a business park 35 miles from the District, at a suburban outpost where the closest white-tablecloth restaurant is a few miles away. The county competes with Loudoun and Fairfax counties to attract biotech companies to the region. And recent attention from anti-growth and anti-illegal immigrant measures have affected the county's image.

"Eventually there will be significant development on that property, but you have to realize that Prince William has never been a top-drawer place and their image problems these days aren't helping it," said John T. "Til" Hazel, a longtime regional developer with no interests in Innovation.

Trying for a New Image

The image problems Prince William confronts today are similar to the issues it faced decades ago. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it was known as a commuter county dependent on businesses such as the Potomac Mills outlet center and strip malls filled with dentists, accountants and real-estate agents. The county developed an anti-business reputation with its much-publicized fight against Disney, which wanted to build a U.S. history theme park near the Manassas battlefield. Residents regularly protested proposals to encourage sprawling growth.

These days, the county is attracting notice for its tough stance on illegal immigration, supporting laws that would cut services to undocumented immigrants and proposals for added police enforcement.

"The more Prince William County is in the news, the more it conveys a sense of turmoil, and businesses like things to be predictable. You don't want to portray yourself as a place that isn't progressive and friendly to businesses and its employees," said James C. Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

Some of the county's elected leaders, however, say the attention over the tough stance on illegal immigrants has helped the county's image as a place that is trying to improve the quality of life for businesses and their employees.