MANASSAS — Didlake, one of the region’s largest employers of people with disabilities, will expand its Manassas headquarters.
The city council approved a proffer change that will allow the firm to use an existing one-story, 12,000 square-foot building at 8621 Breeden Avenue, as a portion of its new offices.
The building, unused for the past five years, was once used to offer “sheltered services” when it opened in 1986. Then, Didlake would bring people with disabilities to the building to perform work for clients.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling barred the practice and ordered employers to integrate disabled employees into the job site, ending the sheltered services program.
Didlake also purchased the empty acre-and-a-half lot next to the one-story building on which it also plans to build new offices.
“As we have grown, Didlake has expanded beyond our current building. We are spread out among several properties in the City of Manassas. This new building will be an opportunity to bring our support functions and some of our day support services back into one facility,” said Didlake CEO Donna Hollis.
When the new building is completed within the next three years, the entire five-acre complex will comprise of three buildings, to include Didlake’s current corporate headquarters on Breeden Avenue.
Didlake was founded more than 50 years ago as a school to provide educational opportunities to people with disabilities.
Today, with offices in both Manassas and Hampton Roads, the company provides employment opportunities across more than 35 federal contracts, as well as operates a UPS Store in the Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center shopping center in Woodbridge.
