Is Northern Virginia tired of winning yet? No! And fortunately for them, Montgomery County and Maryland elected officials aren't tired of losing. Thus it is that the Taiwanese firm MedVoyage Global has chosen Virginia, not Maryland, for its U.S. headquarters. The MedVoyage HQ will be at 10300 Eaton Place, at the Mason Enterprise Center (MEC) in Fairfax City. MedVoyage is a leading firm in the future of healthcare, using a low-Earth-orbit satellite network to deliver telehealth and pharmacy services to remote areas in 40 countries, to ships at sea, and to over 80 bricks-and-mortar medical centers across the globe, as well as connecting these remote customers with emergency response units.
Now MedVoyage is expanding into the North American healthcare market, and has chosen Northern Virginia as its base to scale up system and sales operations, as well as to navigate federal regulatory red tape. "Over the next two years, the company plans to scale its local workforce with systems engineers, clinical compliance specialists, and commercial sales executives," the Fairfax City Economic Development corporation said in a statement this morning. FCED added that this latest victory "further strengthens Fairfax City’s role within Northern Virginia’s innovation economy."
"Selecting Fairfax City for our U.S. headquarters is a foundational step in our global scaling strategy," MedVoyage Global CEO Nemo Teng said in a statement. "MEC Fairfax offers the ideal soft-landing environment and unparalleled access to the Northern Virginia tech ecosystem, placing us minutes away from critical federal and defense stakeholders such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense. This facility allows us to rapidly build strategic U.S. partnerships, access premier regional engineering talent, and deploy our emergency and maritime telehealth solutions across North America."
Anyone familiar with local geography will realize that Montgomery County is also in close proximity to these same federal and defense stakeholders. So, why does Northern Virginia keep winning, and Montgomery County keep losing?
You can look at the most obvious difference, which is the low tax environment of Virginia versus Montgomery County, which weighs down its residents and businesses with the highest total tax and fee burden in the region. But let's again go a step further, and see how once again Northern Virginia's superior infrastructure triumphs over Montgomery County's incomplete master plan highway system and poor airport access.
MedVoyage Global's new U.S. HQ will sit right beside an on-ramp to Interstate 66, and directly adjacent to U.S. Route 50. That will give MedVoyage a straight shot to Dulles International Airport via Route 50, or even faster with tolls via I-66. In contrast, Montgomery County and Maryland elected officials continue to block construction of the long-delayed new Potomac River crossing of I-370 from Gaithersburg to Dulles.
As much as Northern Virginia enjoys winning, so do corporations that need to make something called profits. Winning is contagious. And winners like to have direct access to the only airport in the region with the frequency and variety of flights to international destinations that international businesspeople require to compete - Dulles International Airport. Thanks to our anti-business, Marxist "leadership," Montgomery County continues to lack that strategic advantage - by choice!!
In another delicious coincidence, did you know that Montgomery County's unfinished master plan highway system would have also extended I-66 access into Bethesda? The unbuilt Northwest Freeway, which would have paralleled Wisconsin Avenue through Bethesda, Friendship Heights and Tenleytown, would have crossed the Potomac on the also-unbuilt Three Sisters Bridge and (surprise!) also-unbuilt I-266 near Georgetown University. And you wonder where Montgomery County got all that land for tiny parks and big parking garages between Wisconsin Avenue and the Town of Chevy Chase!
By learning to love losing.
18 comments:
Small business owners in MoCo. It's not just airports, but a total anti-business stance in the county. For example, can anyone name one law the Council has passed in the last year that makes things _better_ for business? All I see is them adding regulations, not reducing them.
Where's Wes lately? Hint: Jogging around Iowa saying he's focused on Maryland.
If only democrats learned economics and that aspirational policies don't survive in a vacuum.
"Only survive"
Did widdle Bobby get his fewings hurt again?
9:17: Did another crushing defeat of your heroes on the County Council cause you to develop a lisp?
Maryland (not MoCo) would be funding a second Potomac River crossing. Why don't you ask the folks in Annapolis what is being discussed.
Do you really want a Northwest Freeway going through Bethesda? How does I-66 get up to Bethesda?
Please move to Virginia so that you can live somewhere in peace that attracts businesses and builds highways so you can laugh in the face of the MoCo cartel.
9:30 - Gee I hit a never or cavity in your brain. There's no defeat, once again, only disappointment in your right wing mentality. Find something useful to blab about widdle Bobbie.
Bravo! Bravo!
7:26/12:45: Our elected officials in Annapolis are also actively blocking construction of the bridge, along with their Fellow Travelers in Montgomery County.
There are many ways of funding a bridge. A toll facility can be constructed with zero taxpayer funding. The federal government should contribute, as additional Potomac River crossings are a national security issue.
We absolutely should have a Northwest Freeway in Bethesda. It was going to be in a depressed trench behind the buildings on the east side of Wisconsin. You can deck over it for parks or development, just as you've seen in Dupont Circle recently. We could still do this, or have it tunnel underneath segments where necessary, using Elon Musk's new boring technology.
12:44: The defeat is yours, and your heroes on the Council. They were beaten again by Virginia. Total victory for me, as year after year, my arguments have been proven correct. If I had been elected way back in 2010, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess today. Instead, the ship of fools sails on.
Love all the liberals stopping in to say bye to businesses. Can't fix stupid. They idolize morons like Katie Wilson in Seattle. Newsflash for the chronically uninformed democrat: Chasing away tax paying businesses that employ people that also pay taxes just means that someone else has to make up the difference that Annapolis & Rockville have already spent. Check out the projected deficit for the next fiscal year in MD. That "little" tax increase we just had is a small preview of things to come.
If complaining were an Olympic sport you’d win the Gold medal.
Elon’s boring technology isn’t anything new. He’s using proven tunnel boring machines to build tunnels for his Tesla’s. He’s never built a tunnel for regular traffic because he can’t offer any benefits over traditional tunneling methods.
Yes things would be much better if you had been elected. You’d be recalled the second you pushed for a highway through Bethesda.
You really think infrastructure can be built for free? Who pays for the planning, studies, and design before construction?
5:16: Musk's system is faster and cheaper than traditional tunnel boring equipment. The tunnel diameter is smaller, and Musk's costs $10-27 million per mile vs. $406 million for traditional tunnel boring.
I can use ChatGPT to read that too. Your freeway needs something more than a Tesla tunnel.
11:37: We have all kinds of options. Tunnel segments are just one. The biggest hurdle would be getting the District of Columbia to agree to allow the portion within their jurisdiction to be constructed. We'd need allies in Congress and in the White House to force their cooperation, if necessary. I'm inspired by the Montgomery County cartel: you just put the steamroller in gear and roll forward, opposition be damned. Remember when over 70% opposed the Little Falls Parkway road diet, but the Council and Planning Board rammed it through anyway? I doubt there's even 70%+ opposition to completing the D.C. freeway system.
5:02: Would Talarico win one in Texas, too? He has endless complaints down there.
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