Arlington and Alexandria need more economic assistance and political backing to offset the exodus of thousands of jobs and the vacancy of millions of square feet in office space under the federal government’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, county representatives said at a public meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting — held at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College — was one of six state-mandated sessions designed to assist Gov. Tim Kaine develop his official Economic Development and Workforce Development Strategic Plans.
Representatives from both jurisdictions urged the state to include in those plans more BRAC assistance, such as a state-funded transitional office and more tax incentives to lure businesses to the area.
“We need the state to recognize the importance of what Arlington and Alexandria are losing,” said Andrea Morris, BRAC project coordinator for Arlington’s Economic Independence Division, during one of the meeting’s breakout sessions. “No one has sympathy for [the counties] because we’re rich. But we are losing jobs period.”
The base realignment could offer “a great opportunity to rebuild the economy because [the region] is so dependent on federal dollars,” said Vivek Kundra, Virginia’s assistant secretary of commerce and trade. Kundra, who led the session, helped participants draw up requested “action items” to take back to Kaine.
Arlington and Alexandria will lose more than 25,000 jobs under BRAC and tenants for more than 4 million square feet of office space. But because the Northern Virginia region as a whole is prosperous — the area has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and Fairfax County will add about 20,000 jobs to Fort Belvoir under BRAC — Arlington and Alexandria have been overlooked, said Stephanie Landrum, acting executive director for the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.
“Don’t look at us as a region,” she said. “Look at Arlington and Alexandria as individuals. If they’re struggling, the region is struggling — even if overall it’s growing.”
Both Arlington and Alexandria are working to find ways to transition the office space — as well as federal employees who don’t want to move — from the public to private sector by the Sept. 15, 2011, deadline.
“We’re anticipating some will want to get out of the federal government,” Morris said. “A lot of those workers won’t want to leave.”
Planning it out
» State law requires every Virginia governor to devise a workforce and economic development strategy by the end of their first year in office. The plans address a wide range of topics, from global competition and tax incentives to tourism and access to capital.
» Tuesday’s public meeting was the first of six that will be held throughout the state through Aug. 2.
