Virginia and Maryland boast equal proximity to Washington and strikingly similar economic conditions, and yet Virginia is consistently winning major corporations that are shopping for real estate in the capital region.

In the last two years, Maryland has lost to Virginia the new headquarters of both Northrop Grumman and Science Applications International Corp., the second- and sixth-largest federal contractors in the nation, respectively. Most recently, Maryland lost a battle over a 625-employee division of Bechtel Corp., an engineering powerhouse that maintains a division twice that size in Frederick County.