Northern Virginia focuses on strengths amid federal cuts

The start of President Donald Trump‘s second term in January 2025 quickly turned to turmoil for some workers and businesses as the new administration slashed contracts and cut federal jobs. The precise toll among Northern Virginia residents is unknown, but analysts estimate about 6,000 people in the region lost their private and public sector jobs this year as a direct result.

While those actions, combined with high interest rates and tariffs, put a damper on some business activity, economic developers across the region have worked to diversify local economies with focuses on defense tech, aerospace, artificial intelligence, life sciences and quantum computing, a theme that continued in 2025.

As Northern Virginia doubles down in its attempts to build an East Coast Silicon Valley, it saw boosts in the national security sector. NoVa also remained the focus of data center developers as the industry expands along Interstate 95, even though some localities placed limits on these controversial projects.

Alexandria and Arlington

The city of Alexandria kicked off 2025 with the opening of the first academic building in Virginia Tech’s $1.1 billion Northern Virginia campus, a project that is expected to add computer engineers and scientists to the state’s tech workforce pipeline in the next two decades.

Recognizing that Trump’s plans included a shakeup of the federal office space footprint, the city also worked with the state to present real estate to the administration, says Stephanie Landrum, CEO and president of Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.

That netted a big gain when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in June it would be moving its headquarters, and 2,700 workers, from Washington, D.C., into the National Science Foundation’s headquarters on Eisenhower Avenue — although it left the NSF scrambling for a new home. In November 2025, the foundation announced it would relocate to a 382,000-square-foot building in the Carlyle neighborhood.

In September 2025, Systems Planning & Analysis (SPA), which provides data and analytics to defense and intelligence customers, announced it will spend $47 million and add about 1,200 jobs. About 500 of those jobs are planned for SPA’s Alexandria headquarters, with the remaining 700 of those roles planned for Fairfax County.

“We’re pretty proud to say that we grew the number of jobs in Alexandria,” Landrum says. “We attracted a new agency to Alexandria, and we were able to protect both the NSF and the patent and trademark office.”

Arlington is riding the momentum of interest in national security with about 15 projects in the pipeline, says Kate Ange, who took over as acting director of the county’s economic development office following the November departure of Ryan Touhill, now Phoenix, Arizona’s community and economic development director.

Arlington added 1,255 jobs in 2025 and reported investment in about 268,000 square feet of office space. Technomics, a federal contractor with headquarters in the county, accounted for about 250 of those new roles in a $5.3 million expansion that adds 25,200 square feet of office space. The county has focused on boosting its innovation ecosystem, and Ange cites developments like German defense AI company Helsing, which established its U.S. headquarters in Arlington in May 2025, as a symbol of Arlington’s emergence in defense tech.

“There are more smaller companies coming to Arlington and wanting to be here, just to be a part of … that tech ecosystem,” Ange says.

Fairfax and Loudoun

In addition to the 700-plus jobs that SPA will bring to Chantilly, Fairfax County scored a win in June 2025, when Tysons IT contractor 22nd Century Technologies announced it would expand and add 880 jobs. The company completed its purchase of Reston-based BT Federal in January, a U.S. govcon subsidiary of London telecom company BT Group. Now known as 22nd Century Networks, the department will continue operating in Reston.

Satellite company Iridium Communications and Fortune 500 contractor Booz Allen Hamilton also announced headquarters moves within the county. While Booz Allen is downsizing its space in Tysons to occupy a new office tower plus several floors of another building in the Reston Row development, Iridium is adding 117 jobs and more than 20,000 square feet in its new headquarters at 1676 International Drive.

“It speaks to the confidence they have in a region and an ecosystem, because they get talent from here, and they also find contracts here and partners,” Economic Development Authority President and

CEO Victor Hoskins says of the internal headquarters moves and expansions.

For fiscal 2025, Fairfax added 9,909 jobs and saw investment in more than 2.2 million square feet of commercial office space and more than 2.5 million square feet of data centers.

Space is dwindling for more data centers in Loudoun, but they continue to draw companies that want to be near the world’s largest cluster of the facilities, says Buddy Rizer, Loudoun’s economic development director.

In September 2025, electrical contractor Dynalectric Washington DC renewed its headquarters lease in Sterling, retaining 2,500 jobs in the county with plans to add 500 more.

Other highlights included an expansion and headquarters relocation of internet of things service provider Orbcomm from New Jersey to Sterling, a $3 million investment that is expected to add 51 jobs. In November, Amazon announced plans to close its Sterling fulfillment center at the end of January, impacting 247 employees, although about half had accepted new jobs at other Amazon facilities in the region, officials said.

Loudoun counted 178 company wins in fiscal 2025 with an investment of more than $8.4 million and 4,561 new and retained jobs.

Prince William and Manassas

George Mason University’s $107 million Life Science and Engineering building opened in January 2025 in the 3,800-acre Northern Virginia Innovation District, which spans parts of Prince William and Manassas. In June, the district received a $2.6 million GO Virginia grant, matched with $1.3 million in additional private and public funds to build talent pipelines and connect academia, research and industry while also creating a launch pad for startups and future development.

Strategic focuses for the district include life sciences, semiconductors and electronics, aerospace and defense, and cybersecurity and data infrastructure, says Christina Winn, executive director of the county’s department of economic development and tourism.

Winn likens the project to creating something like North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.

“What are those things that you’re going to be able to do in the innovation district that you can’t do someplace else?” Winn asks.

Last year saw 30 project wins in Prince William, including $9.6 billion in investment and 964 new and retained jobs in the county.

The city of Manassas also saw success in 2025 with news in November that aviation startup Electra is expanding its headquarters footprint to 57,000 square feet and is likely to grow to 120 employees by early 2026, up from more than 80 workers. General Dynamics Mission Systems also opened its Maritime Systems Center of Excellence, adding 200 jobs focused on modernizing combat systems on U.S. Navy submarines, and boosting its workforce in the city to more than 500 employees.

Caroline, Spotsy and Stafford

Data center deals generated big headlines in Northern Virginia’s counties along I-95, with Vantage Data Centers’ $2.2 billion deal announced in early November in Stafford County, bookended by CleanArc Data Centers’ $3 billion deal later that month in Caroline County.

Other highlights include Aspetto, a defense tech and tactical gear manufacturer, moving its headquarters from Fredericksburg to Stafford, leasing a combined 8,300 square feet of office and manufacturing space while adding 98 jobs.

It’s also impossible to miss the 1.38 million-square-foot Kalahari Resort taking shape alongside Interstate 95 in Thornburg. The $900 million resort has set its opening for November, says Kevin Marshall, business development manager for Spotsylvania.

He also hints at another coming economic development announcement in 2026. It’s not a data center, but that’s all he will say. “I’ve got a blow-your-doors-off project that I can’t talk about.”