The latest Montgomery County fumble on the corporate headquarters front is hardly the highest-profile, but wields a special sting due to a dubious honor the County holds. Public Storage announced Thursday that it has chosen Frisco, Texas from among its suitors for the next location of its worldwide HQ. Fleeing California, Public Storage will join over 200(!! - hey, everything's bigger in Texas, right?) other corporate headquarters at Hall Park in the booming Lone Star state. This despite the Westbard area of Bethesda arguably holding the world's record for most square feet of self-storage, and the greatest number of individual self-storage facilities within such a cramped radius.
"We sell boxes!" is rarely considered sizzling competition for "I Love New York" and "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" when it comes to prominent placemaking slogan signage. But what self-storage CEO wouldn't get a daily ego boost from looking out his window at a corner of the globe utterly dominated by his or her industry? Why, not just one, but two Public Storage facilties are even among the prominent architectural landmarks of the Westbard area.
Josh Allen-ing the chance to win the Public Storage HQ achieves the trifecta of Westbard embarrassment for the Montgomery County cartel. Multiple County Councils have failed to deliver the promised amenities, schools, parks, and public perks of the 1982 and 2016 Westbard sector plans. What did materialize since the cartel seized control of a Council majority in 2002 were numerous, gargantuan self-storage facilities that loom over every corner of that "Westbard sector." To then fail to even win the corporate HQ of one of them is the latest - albeit trivially small - reason the cartel and its puppets on the Council can't say "Problem Solved" the way Public Storage does, when it comes to the moribund County economy and its failure to attract a single new major corporate HQ in over 25 years. Heckuva job, Brownie!
Your report is unclear: did Montgomery County even bid for this opportunity?
ReplyDeleteIf so, that could be legitimately criticized--but it would be much different than their having submitted a bid, and losing.
7:20: Even scarier: are they derelict in their duty, and not even aggressively staying on top of who is relocating, and pursuing each and every one of those opportunities? They don't look good either way, so they have to take the L regardless.
Deletedid Montgomery County even bid for this opportunity?
DeleteLike there is any regulatory contest between the two. MD & VA are on track to export people, (read legal citizens), and corporations to other states. CA has lost an estimated 1-Trillion in economic benefit by way of bad tax and regulations so this is what Moore wants to emulate? Maybe he's taking economic advice from AOC or the real braintrust of the democratic party, Hank Johnson.
ReplyDeleteCartel? I think you might be living in a different reality from the rest of us.
ReplyDelete1:13: The cartel is real, and its members are public knowledge for anyone who follows local politics, Council budget appropriations and campaign contributions.
DeleteAlways has been. The far right.
DeleteIt's safer in Texas for protecting your stuff 'cause everyone's packing (pun intended).
ReplyDeleteRobert, you should know I'm taking one shot for every Heckuva job, Brownie! you manage to shoehorn into each of these journalistic masterpieces. Makes for some awkward 10am conversations in the office, I can tell you.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the secret Purple Line extension had been finished already MoCo would have been able to win over Big Storage
ReplyDeleteWhat drives the demand for storage units? There are so many. I guess in some way it's easy money -rental income with not too much payroll and maintenance costs.
ReplyDelete