Editor’s note: This is the third part of an ongoing series about redeveloping the Potomac Communities.
North Stafford, Va. — At the center of the Potomac Communities lies one of the area’s economic bright spots, which aims to bring thousands of new jobs over the next eight years.
Quantico Corporate Center on U.S. 1 in Stafford County has already built and leased 280,000 square feet of Class A office space, and has more than 70,000 more square feet being built.
Located outside the back gate of Quantico Marine Corps Base near Interstate 95, it’s a win for companies doing business with the Marine Corps, and for the more than 6,000 federal workers transferred to the Potomac Communities after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
“We have had a long term vision for that area materializing as a poignant center for the region, and we’re living that very vision,” said Stafford County Economic Development Administrator Timothy J. Baroody. “We’re working with the base [to develop the center], and [Quantico] encourages outside access to contractors to pop up so they can do more business close to home.”
Once a softball field on base, 10-years-ago Quantico traded the parcel of land for property elsewhere in the county. Today, Baroody said, companies have flocked to the center because of the reasonable lease rates, Stafford’s pro-business environment and the county’s repeal of a Business and Professional Licensing tax – something neighboring Prince William County still collects.
The land outside Quantico Corporate Center, known as Boswell’s Corner, is one of several Urban redevelopment areas defined by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors for future growth, where commercial, retail, and perhaps someday housing could be built.
Officials are hesitant about homes because Quantico has several live munitions ranges nearby where Marines undergo weapons training. While the base is known for rattling windows in homes built more than 20 miles away, base officials worry would-be residents closer to the base would complain about noise.
Baroody says the county could enter into a land use study to that would determine if homes here would be a good idea.
Boswell’s Corner is also a candidate for a science and technology center, aimed at attracting research and development jobs.
“Research and development is the holy grail of job opportunities, and that’s something we are working very hard with the base to bring to the area,” said Baroody.
Construction at the corporate center recently hit a snag when a crane collapsed and damaged a building, but no one was injured. It could take six to eight years to completely build-out Qauntico Corporate Center, but when finished, more than 8,000 jobs could be located there, officials said.
The series: Redeveloping the Potomac Communities
Part 1: Emerging town centers in Woodbridge could spell trouble for small business
Part 2: Forty-years-later, the region’s first town center hopes for a renaissance
