Leidos headquarters will go to Reston

Science Applications International Corp. said Monday that its national security, health and engineering solutions business, which will be named Leidos, will set up its headquarters at Reston Town Center.

The company signed a lease with Boston Properties for office space located at 11951 and 11955 Freedom Dr., named One and Two Freedom Square respectively. Boston didn’t divulge how much square feet Leidos is taking, but said it would be among the largest tenants within the town center complex.

About 150 employees will immediately occupy the space, with another 450 moving in over time as renovations are completed.

“The selection of the headquarters location for Leidos was made after careful consideration of many options,” SAIC Chief Operating Officer Stu Shea said in a statement. “We did careful analysis of where employees live and also mapped out key customer locations to inform our decision,” added Shea, who has been named as the president and COO of Leidos.

The team also considered quality of life, traffic patterns and potential commute times for employees. “The new facility will be more conveniently located for our employees and still gives us easy access to key customers in the area,” Shea said.

Leidos is moving from a campus environment in McLean, where all employees are housed, to a headquarters environment where primarily the leadership team and some corporate functions will reside. “With such a large percentage of our employees working side-by-side with our customers each day – this approach makes sense for Leidos,” Shea said.

Mark Ingrao, president and CEO of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, said “Leidos' presence in the community will complement the professional services, IT and technology firms that comprise the majority of the 2,400 companies located here. We look forward to developing a strong and long-term relationship with Leidos and its employees.”

As previously announced, pending final approval of SAIC's Board of Directors, SAIC plans to separate into two, independent, publicly traded companies in the latter half of the company's current fiscal year.  The separation is planned to occur through a spin-off of the company's technical, engineering and enterprise information technology services business, which will continue with the SAIC name and remain headquartered at 1710 SAIC Drive in McLean.