It's Groundhog Day once again for economic development in the Washington, D.C. region, as yet another firm has chosen Virginia over Maryland, and Arlington County over Montgomery County for its corporate headquarters. This time it's British quantum computing firm Phasecraft. The company announced that Virginia is the winner in the sweepstakes for its new U.S. headquarters. Phasecraft will open the HQ at a not-yet-announced address in Ballston.
The announcement has to particularly sting Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who has repeatedly claimed that he wants to make his state a leader in quantum computing. It certainly didn't help Maryland's bid that Moore declared four days prior to the company's decision that he would sign a total ban on data centers, if the legislature sent one to his desk. This forehead-smacking faux pas is reminiscent of the Montgomery County Council announcing it was canceling the biggest infrastructure project in the White Flint sector plan on the very day that Amazon's HQ2 search team was touring the County's suggested site in White Flint. Whoops!
Just as the Council's transportation infrastructure cancellation cost it the HQ2 of a logistics company, Amazon, announcing you are going to possibly totally ban data centers would almost certainly terminate the consideration of any quantum computing firm to locate in our state. Doh! A decade later, we continue to be led by very stupid people.
A smarter governor, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, found herself once again taking a victory lap. "Virginia continues to grow as a global hub for cutting-edge companies and groundbreaking technologies," Spanberger said in a statement. "I’m thrilled to welcome Phasecraft to the Commonwealth and look forward to seeing all they accomplish as they grow and build on Virginia’s world-class innovation ecosystem. This investment will create new high-tech jobs, attract other leading companies to Virginia, and strengthen the Commonwealth’s growing role in bringing next-generation technologies to market."
Virginia, in contrast to Maryland, is known as the data center capital of America. How Maryland will become "a leader in quantum computing and cybersecurity" without data centers is indeed a puzzling and even humorous dilemma for observers of Governor Moore, who has proven so far that he's far from the sharpest tool in the drawer. What we already do know is that Maryland and Montgomery County haven't attracted a single major new corporate headquarters in over 25 years. Will voters quintuple down on futility on Election Day in November?
So completely ignoring Microsofts new multi-million dollar quantum computing partnership that started this week? I agree Maryland drops the ball all the time on business and is anti-business but definitely leaving out a crucial piece here
ReplyDelete8:16: I would make a distinction between a government funded student research facility and a corporate headquarters. Montgomery County is doing a similar thing at White Flint with a government funded biotech center. Alas, it still hasn't attracted a new major corporate headquarters in over 25 years.
Delete"Will voters quintuple down on futility on Election Day in November?"
ReplyDeleteUh, yes. You don't seem to understand: the vast majority of MoCoers don't want to be like NoVa. Of course we could open up the Agricultural Reserve and turn the area into Loudoun County (hundreds of data centers surrounded by thousands of McMansions). We could make our highways wider and wider and add massive tolls like NoVa has to support that sprawled growth. We actively choose not to.
MoCoers mostly agree that any growth should be concentrated around existing metro stations to mitigate any increases in traffic. There is some debate about how much said growth should be encouraged, but you are among the VERY few who yearn for a Tyson's to be plopped down in MoCo.
8:19: First of all, your dystopian vision described is your own, and not anything I've proposed. Second, we already have sprawled growth. We just never built the infrastructure to support it, leading to the traffic congestion we have. Third, Montgomery County government long ago abandoned its transit oriented development model, allowing high density housing to be built anywhere.
DeleteWhat I've proposed is attracting corporate headquarters, and research and manufacturing facilities of aerospace, defense and technology firms to the many vacant office parks, such as those in the I-270 corridor. I've also advocated for completing our master plan highway system, including a new Potomac River crossing to the Dulles area, the M-83 Highway, and the Rockville Freeway. If we built the missing roads, we wouldn't need to excessively widen the existing ones, which have been forced to carry traffic volumes beyond what they were designed for.
How do we even know if they were actually looking at Maryland? They probably weren’t even considering it.
ReplyDelete5:06: Even if one takes your argument as Devil's advocate, would "not even being considered by international businesspeople" be something to celebrate as success?
DeleteHe assumes this with every corporation that does anything in Virginia
Delete5:06. That alone may reflect poorly on our competitiveness. Certainly indicative of poor competitiveness and image at the very least.
DeleteIn other words, any time something good happens that's only Montgomery County-adjacent, it's the County Council's fault.
ReplyDelete5:06, that's a result of a lackluster mendacious Governor and idle incompetent Senators.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure a quantum computing HQ would seek out a location rich with data centers. Just as defense companies seek to be close to the Pentagon. I still think MoCo is a very HQ location for bio-medical research, hospitality and development headquarters.
ReplyDelete