Shenandoah Valley Big Deal: Advance guard

Northrop Grumman’s $200 million investment to establish an advanced electronics manufacturing and testing facility in Waynesboro paves the way for long-term growth for the Shenandoah Valley, local officials hope.

“It is a huge win for us,” says Jay Langston, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership. “If Northrop Grumman puts faith in our footprint, that can get the attention of other companies. It further diversifies our manufacturing economy.”

The Falls Church-based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor broke ground Feb. 2 on the project. Located on Shenandoah Village Drive, the planned 315,000-square-foot building is being developed by Pennsylvania-based Equus Capital Partners, which will own the property and lease it to Northrop Grumman. (It was “an optimal solution for the company,” says Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Jason El Koubi.)

Northrop Grumman plans to create about 300 jobs — varied engineering and manufacturing roles — at the facility during the next five years. Recruitment and training will be supported through VEDP’s Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a state workforce incentive program. Northrop Grumman anticipates the building will open in 2025 and be ready for production in 2026, according to a company spokesperson.

Northrop Grumman had been evaluating site options for several months prior to approaching VEDP and Waynesboro city officials about the property in December 2022.

“They were looking for the right location that offered infrastructure such as a road network and utilities to include electric, water and sewer,” says Greg Hitchin, Waynesboro’s director of economic development and tourism. “They needed a site that was real estate-ready to develop to meet their schedule.”

Receiving support from VEDP and the city government to ensure the project could meet development timelines “was key to selecting Waynesboro for the project,” says El Koubi.

As with any major economic development project, Northrop Grumman and Equus Capital Partners carefully studied the site and had several questions that needed to be settled before making a decision. “The company had very specific needs for infrastructure that we had to make sure we are able to deliver,” says Hitchin.

“We [took] multiple factors into account that would help us to continue to deliver for our customers and ultimately selected Waynesboro,” a Northrop Grumman spokesperson said in a statement. “The … facility expands our technology presence in the commonwealth and the ability to add new people to our team, continually driving innovation across the company.”

The Waynesboro facility, El Koubi says, will “attract and retain skilled talent and create a transformational economic impact for the entire region.”

Building on the aerospace and defense ecosystem in Virginia, El Koubi continues, the project will importantly “expand the industry’s footprint out of the higher density areas of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.”

Northrop Grumman employs roughly 95,000 employees — 6,800 in Virginia — and reported $39.29 billion in 2023 revenue. The company ranked No. 413 on Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list for 2023, and No. 113 on its annual 1000 list of U.S. corporations for the year.

Northrop Grumman’s expansion fits into the city and region’s strategic plans for building up the local manufacturing sector and increasing employment opportunities. Average employee salaries at the Waynesboro plant will be about $94,000 per year, Hitchin says. Median household income for Waynesboro is about $52,500, according to 2022 U.S. Census data.

“What Northrop Grumman will produce is electronics unlike anything that we have in the region, thus opening a new opportunity to advance electronics-based manufacturing,” Langston says. “We are excited. We are very fortunate.”