$16 million in incentives from Arlington County and Virginia (humiliatingly, a small fraction of the $62 million-and-counting MoCo and Maryland taxpayers had to shell out just to move the Marriott deck chair down the Titanic deck from Rock Spring to downtown Bethesda) were just part of the success story. More business-friendly tax rates and regulations, Metro proximity and direct highway access were some of the advantages Rosslyn enjoyed. "Virginia offers a business-friendly environment," Nestle said in a press release Wednesday.
"Easy access to transportation" was a major factor, according to the Washington Post. 1812 N. Moore is right at the Rosslyn Metro station, and has direct highway access to I-66, I-395, the Whitehurst Freeway, Jefferson Davis Highway, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway, plus straight shots to Reagan National and Dulles airports.
Virginia was already home to over 70 corporate headquarters, and to many more Fortune 500 corporate headquarters than Montgomery County or Maryland. Nestle is a Fortune Global 500 company.
According to the Post, Virginia had been courting Nestle for over a year. Not a word was spoken about pursuing Nestle by Montgomery County elected officials during that time. As the top food company on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Nestle would have been a good fit for the White Oak area, near the FDA. Or in an office tower above the Wheaton or Bethesda Metro stations. The Council didn't even try.
And so, the humiliation continues. Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. It is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. region to suffer a net loss in private sector jobs since 2000; all others around us had a net gain. Our elected officials' intentional failure to complete our master plan highway system has left us with the worst traffic congestion in the nation, and no direct access to Dulles International Airport, the preferred flight hub for international companies.
As a result, Montgomery County finds itself a bedroom community for the job centers elsewhere in our region. Our private sector economy is moribund. The County is running a long-term structural budget deficit, as expenditures continue to swamp revenues. Even our once top-rated school system in now in a steady decline.
It's clear our County elected officials don't understand how the private sector business world works, and have no interest in learning. Time and again, they've proven they can't hit major league pitching when it comes to economic development. The results are being borne by the taxpayers in the form of record taxes, to make up for the low revenues our incompetent County Council has generated through its failed policies.
Voters will have to finish the job in 2018 they began by approving term limits in 2016. Throw the bums out.
Yes, I'm so jealous of Rosslyn and its 27% office vacancy rate. They're just soooooooo appealing to employers.
ReplyDelete"$16 million in incentives from Arlington County and Virginia (humiliatingly, a small fraction of the $62 million-and-counting MoCo and Maryland taxpayers had to shell out just to move the Marriott"
They're completely different size employers, you dolt. MoCo is paying far less per job.
The Marriott jobs are the same jobs - they are already located here. Rosslyn is adding jobs with Nestle. They smoked us again.
DeleteYou say that like it's a bad thing we're retaining 3500 jobs. Why would you think 700 jobs for CA transplants are more important than 3500 jobs for Marylanders (including hundreds of 6, 7 and 8-figure jobs)?
Delete3:44: Never said it was a bad thing. What's negative about it, is that while we are struggling to keep those 3500 deck chairs from sliding off the Titanic, Virginia is gaining 750 jobs they didn't already have, plus the bonus halo effect of yet another Fortune 500. California transplants pay taxes and spend money here (as our carpetbagger councilman Hans Riemer can tell you, having been run out of town on a rail in the Golden State).
DeleteThe upcoming executive and county council races for Montgomery County in 2018 will determine the direction MoCo will be heading in for the next deacde
ReplyDeleteRosslyn is closer to DC than White Oak. You undermine your own arguments in your attempts to insult the Council. We don't have the proximity to downtown and K St. The problem is geographic not political.
ReplyDelete5:42: The company was based in California - clearly they didn't need to be on K Street. Our problem is not geographic, it is high taxes, horrific traffic congestion from failing to finish our freeway system, and gross incompetence and corruption by our County Council. Thank God I'm providing the only news source that isn't afraid to "insult the Council" instead of trading fake good news for "attaboys" from the councilmembers.
DeleteYou do a service with your posts but you go "over the top" too often. Save your powder for when it's really necessary.
Deleteagree with anon 10:22, you don't know when to stop
ReplyDelete5:12: Wouldn't it be great if we had a County Council that "didn't know when to stop," instead of the low energy losers who've driven us into the moribund private sector economy we now have?
DeleteNestle's two choices were next to Dulles and Atlanta international airports - two of the largest int'l airports in the world, which makes sense since the company is based in Switzerland. Pretending MoCo (or even Arlington, for that matter) had a horse in this race is idiotic.
ReplyDelete5:58: Thanks for simply making my point - the Council has deliberately fought the new Potomac crossing to Dulles that would give us that access. Of course we were never in contention, but the failure to implement the policies and infrastructure that would have put us in contention was only compounded by the Council not even making an effort to woo Nestle.
DeleteFor having decades to have done their job and not doing it, it's the Council who are "idiotic," not intelligent critics like me who know 1960s thinking doesn't make you a winner in the 2017 international business world.
Even with spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new Potomac crossing we still wouldn't be as close to IAD as most of the NOVA job centers.
DeleteWe weren't the ideal location for Nestle. It happens. Just like how we attract employers who want to be close to NIH or FDA, NoVa attracts employers who want to be close to DoD and IAD. That's the reality of the situation and spending $200M on a bridge doesn't change that reality. Thank goodness our state and local politicians realize that.
12:45: Building a bridge would give us direct Dulles access, and "change that reality." The Council has declined to do so. We weren't any less of an ideal location for Nestle than for Hilton, Volkswagen, Northrop, CEB, Intelsat, Lidl, etc., ad infinitum. We just didn't have the infrastructure and business-friendly climate to attract such companies. Hence the Council again earns their "impotent" and "incompetent" labels.
DeleteThe FDA food center, CFSAN, is in College Park ....
ReplyDeleteNot that anyone really needs to be located near FDA anyway. People fly in for meetings, stay a day or two, and then fly out.