Monday, January 30, 2017

Silver Spring construction update: United Therapeutics expansion (Photos)

Construction of the Unisphere, a 120000 SF expansion of the United Therapeutics campus, continues at the intersection of Colesville Road and Spring Street. It has mostly been excavation, and shoring and sheeting, up to this point.

There used to be a parking garage here. Replacing it will be another parking garage, plus a six-story building and retail space. Always great to see an existing company expand in the moribund Montgomery County private sector economy which, thanks to our inept and impotent County Council, has failed to attract a single major corporation here in two decades.








5 comments:

  1. I love how you can't resist throwing in "moribund," even where directly staring at what will soon a hundred new 6-figure employees working in a trophy building any city in the world would be proud to have.

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    1. That's exactly why I said it was a bright spot in what even the Washington Post said was a "moribund" east county. Much like Discovery Communications. Anybody would like to have either company, but that doesn't mean we should not take action to fix our overall private sector Montgomery County economy, which even Councilmember Hans Riemer's former chief of staff admits has stagnated under his former boss's "leadership," and that of his Council colleagues.

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    2. Of course we can strive for more jobs/investment in White Oak, etc. It's just weird you feel compelled to throw a turd in every post, no matter how positive the topic is. And they're redundant turds at that - either "moribund" or "nightlife committee" or whatever it was called. It's like you're a broken twitter bot or something.

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  2. "the moribund Montgomery County private sector economy which, thanks to our inept and impotent County Council, has failed to attract a single major corporation here in two decades"

    The overall Montgomery County economy is far from moribund, and I'm 99.9% sure that the Washington Post does not think so. I for one am very glad that the county government is not singularly focused on "attracting corporate headquarters." Instead, it focuses on retaining the ones we have, and is doing a pretty good job of it.

    It's primarily the state level corporate taxes that make the county less competitive for corporate headquarters. However, even a supposedly business-friendly state like VA has had to shell out millions to attract companies like Hilton and Northrop Grumman, but at the same time losing ExxonMobil, Sprint, and AOL.

    Anyways thanks for the update and the images.

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    1. 3:05: The Washington Post indeed stated eastern Montgomery County's private sector economy is moribund, in an article by Bill Turque last year. Ike Leggett said we are becoming a "bedroom community" for job centers elsewhere, something I've been pointing out for years.

      We actually have to shell out a lot more to keep the ones we have, because we can't afford to lose them with no one else coming in.

      We've had a net loss of private sector jobs since 2000, while every jurisdiction around us added jobs. We've lost over 2000 retail jobs alone since 2000. Revenue is far outstretched by expenditures in County government. And no major corporations are moving here. In other words, moribund.

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