New Kids On The Block: Fairfax County

Inova Center for Personalized Health

Inova Health Systems is taking over Exxon Mobil’s 1.2M SF, four-building Merrifield campus. Inova entered into a new 99-year lease on the 117-acre property, two years after Exxon retained Cassidy Turley (now part of Cushman & Wakefield) to sell its former East Coast HQ. The planned Inova Center for Personalized Health is a multimillion-dollar endeavor seeking to pioneer and capitalize on the nascent field of personalized medicine. 

It is now cheaper, and more feasible, to tailor medical interventions to individuals based on their genetic material. More sophisticated understanding of how genetic variations produce different responses to treatments, as well as cost reductions associated with mapping people’s DNA, makes this a promising and potentially lucrative field. 

General Dynamics

General Dynamics is moving its corporate headquarters from Falls Church to Reston. It will occupy a Boston Properties-owned 190k SF, 22-acre, five-story office at 11011 Sunset Hills Road, which will house more than 200 employees and independent contractors. The space is to be allocated exclusively to central management personnel in accounting, HR and the executive team. 

The company aims to cultivate a minimalist and natural feel, with the first two floors devoted to a generous lobby and atrium, and the top three possessing offices and conference rooms. The move won’t actually occur until its lease of 175k SF at 2941 Fairview Park expires in March 2019. In the meantime, Boston Properties will construct the new HQ from the ground up.

Verodin

Verodin, a two-year-old cybersecurity company based in Reston, just secured $10M in venture funding to enhance its marketing and development efforts. Verodin differentiates itself from others in the sector by pressure-testing its clients’ defenses, actually simulating a cyberattack and gauging how well a client’s system and employees are able to respond. This new capital will allow Verodin to double the size of its team at 1818 Library St to 30 employees.