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Tag: Arlington

Boeing CEO to step down by end of year

In late March, Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said he would step down by the end of the year. The announcement came amid ongoing bad press over production problems and fallout from a high-profile January incident in which a 4-foot wall panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet cabin in mid-air.

Calhoun joined Boeing as its CEO in 2020 and has led the embattled Arlington County-based Fortune 500 aerospace company and defense contractor through multiple challenges, including the aftermath of two deadly 737 Max crashes off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia, which collectively claimed 346 lives.

In addition to Calhoun’s departure, Boeing Board Chair Larry Kellner did not stand for re-election during the company’s April 18 annual shareholders meeting. The board elected a new independent board chair, Steve Mollenkopf, to succeed Kellner. The former CEO of semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm, Mollenkopf is leading the board in selecting Boeing’s next CEO.

As part of the management shakeup, Boeing Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Pope was appointed to lead the company’s Boeing Commercial Airplanes business unit, replacing BCA President and CEO Stan Deal, who retired from Boeing effective March 25.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing,” Calhoun wrote in a March 25 letter to employees. “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company. We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.”

In January, terrified Alaska Airlines passengers were exposed to open air at 16,000 feet. Reports followed that the wall panel that blew out was missing bolts, and Alaska Airlines found loose bolts on other Boeing aircraft. The incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the incident, and in mid-March, it was announced that the FBI notified passengers of that Alaska Airlines flight that they may be crime victims. Following the blowout, the FAA conducted a six-week examination of the company’s 737 Max jet production process, including 89 product audits. According to The New York Times, Boeing failed 33 of the audits. 

StartVirginia: HEARD AROUND VIRGINIA

Comcast said April 9 it is opening grant applications for a program benefiting small businesses across Greater Richmond. The global cable broadcasting company said the grant packages include business coaching, education sources, media schedules, creative production, technology makeovers and $5,000 in cash. Comcast’s RISE program is aimed at supporting the growth of small businesses while advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, and community investment objectives. Small businesses can apply for the grants throughout the month of May and a total of 100 grants for the Richmond area are planned to be announced in August. (Richmond Inno)

Lightshift Energy, an Arlington County startup that builds energy storage systems, has raised $100 million from a repeat investor to significantly expand its workforce and project pipelines over the next year. The Series B round brings Rossyln-based Lightshift’s total outside funding to $120 million. Founded in 2019 by Michael Herbert and Rory Jones, the company was previously called Delorean Power. The investment from two affiliates of Greenbacker Capital Management, a New York funder of renewable energy firms that gave the company $20 million in initial funding, has been split into two respective tranches. (DC Inno)

The Regional and Accelerator Mentoring Program (RAMP) has selected four teams for its spring cohort, the organization announced April 2. RAMP serves startups across the Roanoke and New River valleys. The cohort includes Roanoke-based Alice Innovations, a tech startup aiming to improve operating room service efficiency; Falls Church-based Bacchus Therapeutics, which makes a drug that targets specific cancer metabolic pathways; Roanoke-based Recens Respiratio, a health startup working to produce an autonomous nasal cannula system that will respond in real time to changes in patient oxygen demands; and Blacksburg-based Scanlily, which provides a QR code-based method for managing assets and equipment. During the 12-week cohort program, startups will receive $20,000 in nonequity funding, free office space and other perks. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

The Retail Alliance and Phoebus Partnership announced five small businesses in Hampton will receive $3,000 to $5,000 grants and expert consulting as part of a pilot program. The Retail Alliance is using a $100,000 Virginia Business District Resurgence grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to help existing businesses in Phoebus. Eleven businesses applied, and judges selected five: Art Central Gallery, Happy Hempo, Palace Jewelers, SeeWhich Books and Sly Clyde Ciderworks. (Inside Business)

A veteran-led and -owned venture capital firm is relocating its corporate headquarters from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Tysons to be closer to the types of startups it targets for investments: national security contractors led by one or more veterans. Veteran Ventures Capital is set to take up office space in the Boro Tower on Broad Street, steps away from the Greensboro Metro station and Tysons Galleria. Derren Burrell, founder and managing partner of the firm, will return to the region after doing several tours during his 20-year career with the U.S. Air Force. He joins Josh Weed, a general partner of the firm already based in Northern Virginia. (DC Inno)

Rural Southwest and Southside Virginia are in line for a new six-figure grant for entrepreneurship, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. announced March 21. The innovation partnership, which held its board meeting at the New College Institute in Martinsville, gave word that it will commit $100,000. That’s the latest grant in a series that the partnership has awarded within the region over the past couple of years. (Cardinal News)

Flying off the glass cliff?

You’ve no doubt heard of the glass ceiling — the barrier above which women couldn’t rise professionally — but have you heard about the glass cliff?

It’s not as familiar a term as the ceiling, but the glass cliff is real. It’s what happens when a woman or someone from another marginalized group is put in charge of a failing institution.

This can serve a couple of purposes: The corporation can claim its first hire to a top position of a person representing X group, staving off negative headlines a little longer. Also, if the company is truly at the edge of a financial cliff, the stakes are lower than if the leader could actually do something to turn around the company’s fortunes. Maybe the new leader is just a convenient scapegoat.

It isn’t always evident what’s a glass cliff and what isn’t until later on.

Take Arlington County-based Boeing, for example. Ever since a Boeing 737 Jet experienced a midair panel blowout while filled with Alaska Airlines passengers in early January, the aerospace company has come under considerable federal scrutiny over its safety and manufacturing practices. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation, and the FBI wrote letters to passengers telling them that they may be victims of a crime.

In April came the corporate fallout: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced he was stepping down by the end of this year, and Stan Deal, head of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes business unit, retired effective immediately. 

Now Stephanie Pope, Boeing’s chief operating officer, has also been put in charge of the commercial planes unit — “the toughest job at Boeing,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 

This may not be a glass cliff situation. This could be Pope’s proving ground. We just don’t know yet. 

A third-generation aerospace employee, Pope led Boeing’s parts and services business  and also held several finance positions. After her promotion to COO, she was seen as a probable successor to Calhoun, but GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp and Carrier Global CEO Dave Gitlin are now favored for Boeing’s CEO, Fortune reported in April.

If hired as CEO, Pope would be the century-old Fortune 500 company’s first woman leader. Boeing’s not exactly a pioneer in terms of hiring female aerospace CEOs — in Virginia alone, we have General Dynamics Chairman and CEO Phebe N. Novakovic and Northrop Grumman Chairman, President and CEO Kathy Warden.

But Boeing never hired a woman to lead its company in good times or even less-bad times.

Now it’s in real trouble. In the first quarter of the year, Boeing delivered 83 jets, down from 157 in the previous quarter, and United told Boeing to halt production of the 737 Max 10 jets it ordered. Sales ground to a halt in January, with only three plane orders, and are still down.

Pope, in her new capacity, wrote in an email to employees last month, “This is a pivotal moment for us, and we have serious work ahead to build trust and improve our operations.”

And who’s in charge? Women.

Pope is joined by Katie Ringgold, who previously led 737 airplane deliveries at Boeing, as new head of the Max program, and Elizabeth Lund has been promoted to senior vice president of quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

They’re tasked with fixing the reputation of Boeing, starting with bringing quality control measures up to standard, most experts acknowledge. These are lessons earlier leaders didn’t learn after two Max 8 planes crashed in 2018 and 2019 incidents, claiming hundreds of lives.

Boeing stopped production of the jets and then resumed in late 2020, but C-suite leaders demanded more jets produced faster, according to a March 28 New York Times article based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Boeing employees.

We can’t say this is a glass cliff yet. Maybe Pope and company will succeed where others (mainly men) have failed. But it’s not a job most people would want, unless they’re promised golden parachutes.

Boeing CEO Calhoun to step down by year-end

Amid ongoing bad press over production problems and fallout from a high-profile January incident in which a 4-foot wall panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet cabin in mid-air, Boeing announced Monday that its president and CEO, Dave Calhoun, would step down from his position leading the embattled Arlington County-based Fortune 500 aerospace company and defense contractor by the end of 2024. 

Additionally, Boeing Board Chair Larry Kellner will not stand for re-election during the company’s April 18 annual shareholders meeting. The board has elected a new independent board chair, Steve Mollenkopf, to succeed Kellner. The former CEO of semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm, Mollenkopf will lead the board in selecting Boeing’s next CEO. Kellner, who has chaired Boeing since 2019, joined the board 13 years ago, and Mollenkopf has been on the board since 2020.

Steve Mollenkopf
Boeing’s board elected Steve Mollenkopf to serve as its next board chair on March 25, 2024. (Photo courtesy Boeing)

As part of the management shakeup, Boeing Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Pope has been appointed to lead the company’s Boeing Commercial Airplanes business unit, replacing BCA President and CEO Stan Deal, who retired from Boeing effective Monday.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing,” Calhoun wrote in a letter to employees. “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company. We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.”

In a statement, Mollenkopf said, “I am honored and humbled to step into this new role. I am fully confident in this company and its leadership – and together we are committed to taking the right actions to strengthen safety and quality, and to meet the needs of our customers. I also want to thank both Larry and Dave for their exceptional stewardship of Boeing during a challenging and consequential time for Boeing and the aerospace industry.”

In January, terrified Alaska Airlines passengers were exposed to open air at 16,000 feet. Reports followed that the wall panel that blew out was missing bolts and Alaska Airlines found loose bolts on other Boeing aircraft. Amid questions about whether Boeing cut corners on quality control, the incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the incident, and on Friday, it was announced that the FBI notified passengers of that Alaska Airlines flight that they may be crime victims.

Following the blowout, the FAA conducted a six-week examination of the company’s 737 Max jet production process, including 89 product audits. According to The New York Times, Boeing failed 33 of the audits.

The FAA halted expanded production of the 737 Max, and customer United Airlines has approached competitor Airbus. Boeing reported that it had net-zero orders for new commercial aircraft during January.

The writing was on the wall for Calhoun, with one industry veteran telling Reuters in February, “I can’t see how the CEO can survive and how he should survive.” Last week, Boeing board directors, including Kellner, said they would conduct a “listening tour” with their largest airline customers — sans Calhoun — Bloomberg reported. 

Following the Alaska Airlines incident on Jan. 5, all Boeing 737 Max jets were grounded temporarily in the U.S., although flights were allowed to resume later in the month. In February, the company announced it would rework 50 undelivered 737 Max jets after finding mistakes in drilled holes in the fuselage of some of them, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, some Alaska Airlines passengers filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the airline and Boeing, and Boeing’s chief financial officer said in March at a Bank of America conference that the company would burn between $4 billion and $4.5 billion in the first quarter of the year because of lower delivery volume and pressure on working capital, according to Reuters.

There was more financial fallout over recent weeks, as some travelers changed plans to avoid flying on Boeing planes and air carriers said they would be cutting back flights this summer and seeking alternatives to 737 Max planes they had already ordered.

Also in March, a former Boeing quality manager-turned-whistleblower, John Barnett, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Although he left the company years earlier, Barnett had called attention to safety concerns regarding Boeing 787 jets under construction in South Carolina, where he started working in 2010. Several former Boeing employees alerted authorities to a series of quality control problems at Boeing plants dating back several years, according to a Washington Post story. In December 2021, the Senate Commerce Committee produced a report following the two deadly 737 Max crashes in October 2018 and March 2019, documenting metal shavings and tools left on jets in production.

A Virginia Tech alumnus, Calhoun has steered Boeing through strong headwinds since becoming its CEO in 2020, including the aftermath of the deadly 737 Max crashes off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia, which together claimed 346 lives. Following the January Alaska Airlines incident, Calhoun said Boeing will “cooperate fully and transparently” with federal investigators in the most recent probe.

Calhoun previously held C-suite positions at Blackstone, Nielsen Holdings and General Electric.

Boeing, which moved its headquarters to Arlington from Chicago in 2022, has about 170,000 employees worldwide, including 400 workers in Arlington.

 

Artists pull out of SXSW over Army, RTX involvement

Dozens of bands and solo musicians boycotted Austin, Texas’ South by Southwest (SXSW) festival this week in protest against the Department of Defense’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza. Among SXSW’s sponsors this year are the U.S. Army and Arlington County-based aerospace and defense contractor RTX, which makes weapons and other equipment used by Israel’s military.

According to The Hill, as of Wednesday, 105 music acts and five music labels have dropped out of the nine-day festival, which concludes Saturday. In February, the Austin For Palestine Coalition called for music artists and participants in speakers’ panels to boycott SXSW due to the festival’s financial backing by the U.S. Army, RTX and its subsidiaries, and other defense contractors. Also mentioned by the coalition was Falls Church-based BAE Systems Inc., which was scheduled as an exhibitor at a startup event connected to SXSW, although a BAE spokesperson sent a statement to The Hill that it did not plan to participate in the festival.

Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Lindsey Elder said in a statement to Virginia Business on Thursday that the military branch is “proud to be a sponsor of SXSW, and to have the opportunity to showcase America’s Army. SXSW presents a unique opportunity for the Army to meet technology innovators and leaders, explore new ideas and insights, and create dynamic industry partnerships as we modernize for the future. By engaging with innovators and entrepreneurs, we are able to invest strategically in state-of-the-art systems, allowing us to evolve and adapt to new threats and challenges.”

Previously known as Raytheon Technologies, RTX has three business units: Aerospace and defense technology supplier Collins Aerospace, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina; aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, headquartered in East Hartford, Connecticut; and Arlington-based subsidiary Raytheon, which includes intelligence, space, missiles and defense business segments.

The Austin for Palestine Coalition issued an open letter Feb. 21 demanding that SXSW organizers “disinvite Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems to the conference and festivals in the city of Austin. Raytheon, Collins Aerospace and BAE Systems have direct ties to the arming of Israel, supporting their violent oppression of the Palestinian people. Raytheon manufactures missiles, bombs and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians.”

SXSW organizers said in posts on X this week that “we fully respect the decision these artists made to exercise their right to free speech,” while adding, “The Army’s sponsorship is part of our commitment to bring forward ideas that shape our world. In regard to Collins Aerospace, they participated this year as a sponsor of two SXSW Pitch categories, giving entrepreneurs visibility and funding for potentially game-changing work.”

RTX and BAE Systems did not respond immediately to requests for comment Thursday from Virginia Business.

As of late February, Israel’s war in Gaza has claimed more than 30,000 Palestinian lives, including numerous civilians, and more than 70,000 people have been wounded in the territory, according to health officials in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza followed Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians near Gaza’s border on Oct. 7, 2023, which claimed about 1,200 lives, as well as the kidnapping of about 200 people, according to Israel authorities.

Also, the United Nations and worldwide aid organizations have characterized the situation in Gaza as a humanitarian catastrophe, as Israeli troops have frequently not allowed food and other aid to reach people in the territory. Last month, top U.N. officials said that at least a quarter of Gaza’s population, or 576,000 people, are “one step away from famine” without more aid, according to the Associated Press.

President Joe Biden and other U.S. politicians have received heavy criticism for their support of Israel’s military as the death toll grows in Gaza, and the federal government has increased financial and military aid to Israel in a budget passed by the U.S. Senate and now under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In Biden’s State of the Union speech, he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and authorized the construction of a temporary port to allow delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents, while still funding weapons for Israel. Also, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, a leading U.S. Democratic ally of Israel, said in a speech Thursday that Israel needs to hold a new election and that the Middle East nation risks becoming a “pariah” under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has authorized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Northern Va. Year-in-Review: Back to the cookie jar

Data centers continued to dominate, define and, in some cases, shape the arc of Northern Virginia’s 2023 economic story.

Amazon Web Services cleared its hurdle in Stafford County, and although Prince William County’s controversial Digital Gateway project faced major public backlash, supervisors ultimately voted to approve the 1,200-acre project’s rezoning applications in December 2023. (See related story.)

Often touted as once-in-a-generation development projects, data centers tend to bring with them the promise of an economic sea change and local tax windfalls, although critics point out that they also come with few jobs and very high electrical power usage.

However, data centers were hardly the only projects of note in the region last year. In December 2023 came Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s unexpected announcement of plans to move the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals teams to a proposed $2 billion entertainment complex and arena in Alexandria. If successful, the arena would be owned by a state-run authority, requiring General Assembly approval. In mid-February, that bill ran into a Senate roadblock, although the House version passed. For Youngkin to seal the deal, he’ll need to make concessions to Democrats, politicos say.

Alexandria

Backed by Youngkin and majority team owner Ted Leonsis, the plan to move the Wizards and Capitals from Washington, D.C., to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard would be the economic development equivalent of Stanley Cup and NBA Finals wins for the commonwealth, supporters say. The governor has said the project could potentially create $12 billion in local economic impact and 30,000 jobs over the next several decades.

As part of the deal, the teams’ corporate owner, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, would move its headquarters from Washington to Alexandria, bringing more than 600 jobs. Run by Leonsis, with partners including Fortune 500 CEOs Richard Fairbank of Capital One Financial and Raul Fernandez of DXC Technology, Monumental also owns the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. The company would invest $403 million in the $2 billion project in addition to contributions from the state, Alexandria and JBG Smith Properties, developer of Amazon.com’s HQ2, located a short distance away from Potomac Yard.

The proposal is nonbinding, and for the plan to take place, the General Assembly must establish a sports authority that would own the property and buildings. Sen. Scott Surovell sponsored a bill in the 2024 session that would establish the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Authority and financing fund.

Fairfax County

It was a year of ribbon-cuttings for Fairfax as the county welcomed almost a dozen headquarters openings, relocations or expansions in 2023.

V2X, the aerospace and defense contractor formed by the 2022 merger of Vertex and Vectrus, moved its headquarters from Colorado to Tysons in April 2023, and satellite cybersecurity firm SpiderOak relocated its headquarters from Colorado to Reston.

Fairfax County Economic Development Authority President and CEO Victor Hoskins attributes the county’s appeal to its large talent base and its proximity to transportation and government agencies, as well the regional data center boom, which has also benefited Fairfax.

“We ended up with about 417,000 square feet in data centers last [fiscal] year, which for us is good,” says Hoskins. “That is above what we set as our benchmark.”

Overall, in fiscal 2023, the county EDA announced the additions of 9,300 jobs and more than 1.5 million square feet of office space.

Loudoun County

Buddy Rizer, Loudoun’s economic development executive director, says that although data centers are still important to the county’s economy, they aren’t the whole story. “We had significant wins from sports to retail to health IT to manufacturing and logistics. We added $10 billion of new commercial investment last year.” 

Rizer views Rivana at Innovation Station’s approval last spring as the county’s biggest deal of the year. Loudoun supervisors voted in May 2023 to approve the 103-acre multiuse project, which is expected to include 2.4 million square feet of residential, office and hotel space in its first phase. Groundbreaking is expected in March, Rizer said in January. Also, developers of Arcola Center, a 34-acre business park, broke ground last year on more than 3 million square feet of flex industrial space.

Nevertheless, Rizer expects about 2 million square feet of data center space to be added this year in Loudoun.

Stafford County

An Amazon Data Services deal stood out as Stafford’s biggest economic development story over the past year, when county supervisors approved a data center performance agreement with the Amazon.com subsidiary on Jan. 2, following months of discussion. 

Due to nondisclosure agreements and closed sessions, some details are not public, but the performance agreement includes two data centers planned on 50 acres off Old Potomac Church Road, as well as any future campuses. The project represents a $2 billion investment and the potential for more than $100 million in tax revenue annually for the county.

“Getting a data center is kind of like landing an auto manufacturer was in the 1900s,” said Kyle F. Allwine, who was Stafford County’s economic development director before departing in December 2023. “It can be life-changing for a county.

“Now it’s a matter of ironing out the incentive deals and everything else,” Allwine added. Another data center proposal —Stafford Technology Campus, a 5.8 million-square-foot project on 523 acres — is set to be submitted for rezoning by June, officials say.

Stafford’s other economic news from the past year included the October 2023 opening of Japanese convenience store food products manufacturer Warabeya Nichiyo Holdings Co.’s East Coast production plant, which resulted in the creation of more than 300 jobs, an increase from the 268 originally projected. Warabeya Nichiyo’s primary client is the 7-Eleven chain.

Prince William County

Billed as the future largest data center complex in the world, the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway received its final approval on Dec. 13, 2023, after more than 24 hours of public comments both for and against. The lame-duck Board of Supervisors passed three rezoning applications, allowing the project to go forward, in 4-3 votes with one abstention. Upon completion, the project is expected to include 23 million square feet of data centers on 2,100 acres.

As of November 2023, Prince William County had 42 data center buildings, totaling 7.78 million square feet, with an additional 4.5 million square feet under development.

“This is definitely a sweet spot for Prince William County,” says Christina Winn, executive director of the county’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

Overall, Prince William recorded $1.9 billion in capital investment, and 1,420 new and retained jobs in 2023.

Meanwhile in the county’s seat, the city of Manassas, Giant Food opened its 82,000-square-foot e-commerce distribution facility in May 2023, creating 200 jobs and investing about $30 million.

Arlington County

February brought an early Valentine’s Day gift to Arlington, with the news that CoStar Group was investing $20 million to relocate its global corporate headquarters from downtown Washington, D.C., to Rosslyn. Known for its Apartments.com brand, the real estate analytics and data company purchased the region’s tallest office building, the 560,000-square-foot Central Place Tower, for $339 million from Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Smith Properties and PGIM Real Estate. CoStar plans to move into 150,000 square feet of the building in late 2024. About 500 employees will be relocated, and CoStar also plans to add 150 jobs.

Meanwhile, retention and expansion were the name of the economic game for Arlington in 2023, although in June, Amazon held the grand opening for Metropolitan Park, the first phase of HQ2, the e-commerce giant’s $2.5 billion-plus East Coast headquarters, a high point for the year. While Amazon had hired 8,000 HQ2 workers by June, it announced in March 2023 that it would be pausing construction of HQ2’s second phase, PenPlace, including the proposed showcase spiral Helix building. Amazon began moving employees into the first of Metropolitan Park’s 22-story twin towers in May.

Spotsylvania County

In October 2023, Kalahari Resorts & Conventions broke ground on its $900 million, 1.38 million-square-foot destination water park resort in Spotsylvania. (See related story.) Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs made significant progress on its new regional outpatient clinic at U.S. 1 and Hood Drive in the county’s Four Mile Fork area, expected to be among the largest VA outpatient clinics in the nation. Initially scheduled for delivery in late 2023, the clinic is now slated to open in 2025. 

CoStar Group moving global HQ to Arlington

UPDATED: Feb. 16, 10 a.m.

CoStar Group, which already has a major presence in Richmond, will invest $20 million to move its global corporate headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Arlington County’s Rosslyn area, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.

Known for its online real estate marketplaces Apartments.com and Homes.com, the real estate analytics and data company also purchased the 560,000-square-foot Central Place Tower building at 1201 Wilson Boulevard from Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Smith Properties and Newark, New Jersey-based PGIM Real Estate. CoStar paid $339 million for the property, according to a report from Bisnow based on CoStar’s own commercial real estate data.

About 500 corporate office employees will be relocated from downtown D.C. to Arlington, and CoStar plans to add 150 jobs at the new headquarters, where it expects to occupy 150,000 square feet in late 2024.

“The financially strategic acquisition of this building will provide the perfect home for the more than 500 employees at our current headquarters. We’re incredibly thankful for our 14 years calling Washington, D.C., home, and we will continue to be a part of this community even as we move across the river to Arlington County,” CoStar founder and CEO Andy Florance said in a statement.

In making the announcement, Youngkin said, “Virginia’s a great choice for a new corporate headquarters location, and we are excited that CoStar Group, a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets, sees the economic advantage in moving to the commonwealth. … We are proud that CoStar has chosen Virginia as its home.”

Arlington is already home to Fortune 500 companies RTX, Boeing and AES, as well as Amazon.com’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters and Nestlé’s North American headquarters.

CoStar Group will pay $13.95 million to Arlington County to obtain exclusive, sole use of the 12,000-square-foot Observation Deck in the Central Place Tower, which was the region’s highest public observation deck, offering panoramic skyline views. At 391 feet tall, the 31-story building is also the tallest in the Greater Washington region. Designed by D.C. architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle, the building was completed in 2017. CBRE assisted with marketing Central Place. The tower’s other features include a two-story, Calacatta marble lobby with a floor-to-ceiling video wall. There’s also an outdoor public plaza offering 45,000 square feet of dining and retail space.

According to Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz, CoStar’s nearly $14 million payment to secure Observation Deck access is contingent upon approval by the county Board of Supervisors, and will be allocated toward the reconstruction of Rosslyn’s Gateway Park to be completed nearly 10 years earlier than planned. After CoStar submits required land use applications and receives approvals, the county would vacate its Observation Deck easement.

“CoStar Group’s move to Arlington is a huge win and a testament to our high quality of life, dynamic urban centers, unparalleled talent pool and business-friendly environment,” said Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill. “CoStar Group’s outright purchase of the building also signifies confidence in our commercial real estate market, which is key to our ongoing efforts to reduce office vacancies.”

Founded in 1987, CoStar employs more than 6,200 workers in 14 countries and is included in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes.

In addition to the Homes.com and Apartments.com residential real estate online portals, CoStar Group’s other divisions include CoStar, a provider of commercial real estate data, analytics and news; LoopNet, a leading online marketplace for commercial real estate; Ten-X, the world’s largest online commercial real estate exchange; and STR, a hospitality data and analytics division it acquired in 2019. CoStar may be best known by the general public for its Apartments.com advertisements with movie star Jeff Goldblum, including a big-budget, special effects-heavy 2024 Super Bowl ad.

CoStar moved to D.C. from Bethesda in 2010. Washington, D.C., has been plagued by record downtown office vacancy rates and an aging stock of office buildings, with buildings older than 24 years old making up about 75% of vacancies last year. Additionally, violent crime rose nearly 40% in the District last year, a point that has come up in local speculation about why Monumental Sports & Entertainment is planning a $2 billion move from D.C. to Virginia that has become a political hotpoint during the 2024 General Assembly session.

In November 2022, CoStar broke ground on its $460 million expansion in downtown Richmond, where the company employs more than 1,000 people at its research and data analytics headquarters, established in 2016. CoStar has said it plans to add 2,000 employees to the city’s local workforce when its new, 750,000-square-foot Richmond campus is expected to open in 2026.

Last year, CoStar made an $18 million commitment toward Virginia Commonwealth University’s CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation in Richmond. The $253 million center, which could begin construction this year, will house VCU’s School of the Arts and interdisciplinary programs involving business, sciences, medicine and engineering.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Arlington Economic Development to secure CoStar’s headquarters relocation for Virginia. Youngkin approved a $1.25 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Arlington with this project, and he also approved a $3.5 million Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant for the project. Funding and services to support the company’s workforce training needs will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional details of CoStar’s acquisition of Central Place Tower.

RTX subsidiary lands $154M Army contract

Raytheon, a subsidiary of Arlington County-based RTX, received a $154 million contract to deliver independent viewer systems to the U.S. Army, the Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor announced Wednesday.

Under the contract, Raytheon, which, like its parent company, is also based in Arlington, will deliver Commander’s Independent Viewer (CIV) systems for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicles. CIV is an electro-optical/infrared sight system that uses forward-looking infrared cameras and sensors to provide the infantry vehicle with 360-degree battlefield oversight and targeting capabilities.

“The CIV is a package of multiple systems all working together to increase the survivability and battlefield performance of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle,” Bryan Rosselli, president of Raytheon’s Advanced Products and Solutions business group, said in a statement. “These capabilities — early threat detection, 360-degree battlefield view and all-weather performance — increase a vehicle commander’s ability to locate, identify and defeat stationary and moving targets in any condition.”

Raytheon will produce the units in McKinney, Texas. The first delivery is expected June 2026.

Earlier this month, Raytheon announced it had received a $344.6 million U.S. Air Force contract modification to produce StormBreaker smart weapons.

RTX has more than 185,000 employees globally and had $68.9 billion in sales in 2023. The company rebranded from Raytheon Technologies to RTX in June 2023 and has three business units: Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Raytheon.

FAA probes Boeing’s possible role in 737 Max 9 cabin blowout

Nearly a week after a four-foot wall panel blew out of a Boeing plane cabin midair, exposing Alaska Airlines passengers to open air at 16,000 feet, the Federal Aviation Administration formally notified the Arlington County-based aerospace giant Wednesday that it will investigate the company’s potential role in the incident and whether it failed to ensure its products were in safe operating condition.

The FAA investigation — separate from the National Transportation Safety Board’s probe into the Alaska Airlines flight’s emergency landing Friday in Portland, Oregon — will focus on whether Boeing is at fault for the panel flying off the plane.

In a letter written Wednesday and made public Thursday, FAA Director for Integrated Certificate Management Division John Piccola informed Boeing Commercial Airplanes Vice President Carole Murray that the agency is conducting an investigation into the Alaska Airlines cabin panel blowout. “After the incident, the FAA was notified of additional discrepancies on other Boeing 737-9 airplanes,” he wrote. “Boeing may have failed to ensure its completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in accordance with quality system inspection and test procedures.”

Piccola adds that Boeing can respond within 10 business days of receipt of the letter. The letter does not go into additional detail about the problems spotted on other aircraft.

Last Friday, the Boeing Model 737 Max 9 jet had just taken off from Portland, Oregon, when the 63-pound panel was ripped away; it was used to plug up a space for an unused door near the back of the aircraft, and the panel was later found in a Portland teacher’s backyard, according to the NTSB. Although passengers were reportedly terrified, no one was injured, and the plane was able to make an emergency landing. The FAA, meanwhile, ordered a temporary grounding of dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets so they could be examined for similar problems.

Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO and president, said in a statement Thursday that the company “will cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and the NTSB on their investigations.” Calhoun, when speaking during a town hall meeting at a Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, earlier this week, showed emotion when discussing the incident. He said, “We’re going to approach this, No. 1, acknowledging our mistake. We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way.” 

The latest incident is just one in a series of problems that have plagued Boeing over the past few years. In April 2023, Boeing had to pause delivery of some of its 737 Max jets after some of their parts were installed incorrectly, and in January 2023, delivery of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft was halted over documentation problems. In December 2023, Boeing delivered its first Dreamliner to a Chinese airline since November 2019, but China grounded all 737 Max jets back in March 2019 after two fatal crashes of the jet in about five months. Although other countries followed suit in banning the plane, the U.S. lifted its ban in 2020, as did other countries, except for China.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Boeing’s stock had fallen 2.27% since start of trading to $222.66 a share. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, which was responsible for installing the panel that blew off, saw its stock fall nearly 6% to $27.60 a share. Alaska Air Group, however, mostly recovered after a dip earlier in the trading day, finishing the day at $36.99 a share, only .19% down from the start of trading.

Boeing is one of the world’s largest defense contractors and employs more than 140,000 people globally. In 2022, the company moved its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington County, where about 400 Boeing employees are based. 

HII names two legislative affairs execs

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries has promoted Peter Courtney to corporate vice president of legislative affairs and hired Betsy Bina Benedict as director of legislative affairs.

Courtney was previously HII’s director of legislative affairs and takes the place of Carolyn Apostolou, who retired in December 2023. He will work from the Arlington County office and report to Stewart Holmes, HII’s executive vice president of government and customer relations. Benedict will report to Courtney.

Courtney will be responsible for the development of HII’s lobbying strategy and implementation of lobbying activity, with a general focus on U.S. Senate members, staff and committees of jurisdiction. In addition to shaping legislative proposals, he will also be responsible for ensuring compliance with all Federal Election Commission and other legal and regulatory disclosure requirements regarding lobbying.

Before joining HII, he served 24 years in the U.S. Navy, most recently serving as deputy director of the Appropriations Matters office in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990 and has a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in national security affairs from the Naval War College and an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Benedict previously served in a variety of legislative and policy positions in Congress, including 13 years with the House Appropriations Committee. She was most recently clerk for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies. She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has a master’s degree in national security studies from the Army War College and a master’s degree in government from Johns Hopkins University.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. The Fortune 500 company employs more than 44,000 workers and is Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its Newport News Shipbuilding division is the United States’ only manufacturer of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.