NORTHERN VIRGINIA DAILY

Article Date: May 09, 2003

Avtex project moving ahead

By:  Mary Beiler 

The redevelopment of the Avtex site is starting taking shape with the completion of renovations at the former administration building.

The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, which has been responsible for renovating the structure, moved its offices into the building last week.  Executive Director Stephen A. Heavener said the challenge is now to market the facility to businesses that want to locate in the Northern Virginia area.

“The EDA hopes that it sets the standard for new office investments in Warren County,” Heavener said.  “The challenge is to reposition Front Royal as a competitive office market to Northern Virginia.”

The EDA’s recent success in providing broadband, or highspeed, Internet access to the area, Heavener said, helps make Front Royal more marketable to businesses.

“Now that we have highspeed Internet, not every company needs to be on the Beltway,” he said.

Posing potential obstacles to the new office space, however, are the facts that it sits on a Superfund site and is located in a town that is not commonly thought of as an office market.

“It’s going to take a pioneer – someone who’s willing to take a risk – because it’s not going to be an ideal site for many, many years,” he said, adding that demolition of buildings on the site will not be completed for another two to three years.

The building houses five offices, ranging from 900 square feet to 4,200 square feet.  Four offices spaces are available, since the EDA is occupying one of them.

Rental rates have been set at $15 per square foot, leaving monthly rental rates in range of $1,125 to $5,250.

The building serves as a model for future marketing of the redeveloped site and will signify the first jobs at the site since the plant was shut down in 1989.

“We’re very excited to be the first tenant in the first redevelopment project at Avtex since the ‘80's ,” Heavener said.

The EDA has already begun to recruit companies for the site, and has been in contact with real estate brokers and companies from the D.C. metropolitan area.

After years of concentrating on attracting large distribution centers to the area, the EDA is now faced with a lack of available land, and consequently is beginning to focus on technology and office related businesses.

The first step in attracting D.C. companies would be to profile the county’s workforce.  A telephone survey has been conducted to collect data on the county’s workforce, especially people who commute every day, in order to find out what jobs are needed in the area to keep them here.  The survey results, expected to be released later this month, will determine the skills, experience, education and related characteristics of those daily commuters.