September 2000
Features
OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST
The Departments of Economic Development and Public Works, in conjunction with the Ballston Partnership Real Estate Committee, will debut Virtual Arlington on Thursday, September 28th from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Executive Conference Center, 3601 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600 at Virginia Square. Virtual Arlington is a 3-dimensional computer model of Arlington's "downtown" areas that can be used for marketing and planning the future Arlington. In addition to viewing the model, there will be a discussion of the requirements for its continued development and use. This free event is addressed to developers, brokers, architects, and others whose profession is focused on the built environment. For more information, contact Janet Brown-Smith at the Office of Business Investment at (703) 228-3560. To register to attend, please fill out the following form.
IncubatorAMERICA! will be busy hosting several international delegations over the next month. Each of the delegations comprise ten to twenty business people interested in learning about options for expanding their businesses, seeking business alliances and learning about how business is conducted in the United States. The largest delegation is from the City of Yokohama, Japan and consists of 20 businesses visiting Arlington specifically to see IncubatorAMERICA. The Department of Economic Development pitched the incubator to Yokohama officials during a marketing trip to Japan last March. Other delegations visiting this month will come from Takaoka, Japan; Saxony, Germany; Taiwan and France. For more information contact Donna Noble at (703) 228-3567.
In addition, the U.S. Department of State is sponsoring a visit by the French FNEP Delegation of professionals and academics researching the broad theme of "Security and Development in the 21st Century." One of their stops will be a visit with the Arlington Department of Economic Development to learn about "the positive and negative impact that economic development is having on societies around the world." For more information contact Terry Holzheimer of DED at (703) 228-3571.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
Ballston Plaza has signed leases with CACI (105,296 sf), Jacobs Facilities (91,216 SF), the Council for Exceptional Children (27,998 sf) and BroadBand Office (9,393 sf).
Cais Internet, Inc., a leading broadband solutions company, has signed a lease for 30,000 additional square feet of office space. Cais Internet already has an office in Rosslyn, but will be expanding into new space at 1560 Wilson Boulevard.
IncubatorAMERICA! announced the formation of a contract with JETRO - the Japan External Trade Organization - to incubate two Japanese companies over the next year. Once working visas are issued, representatives from Coremed Corporation and WWIN/Meteora will be the newest occupants of Incubator AMERICA. JETRO is Japan's premiere organization for implementing trade policy. JETRO advocates that " …Japanese venture companies take a global approach to prosper in the 21st Century." In support of this position, JETRO launched TIGERGATE 2000 to offer support to Japanese venture companies interested in a global marketplace. The United States was targeted because of its reputation as a "world leader in the area of venture start-ups." More information about Coremed Corporation, a biotech consulting firm and WWIN/Meteora, a company that has patented a supply management tool for the garment industry, will be available in the next issue of econ.news.
The Arlington Board will consider plans proposed by Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) for the redevelopment of Shirlington Village at their October 7th meeting. FRIT is proposing to develop a 195,000 square foot office building, 52,500 square feet of additional retail space including a small grocery, a 150 room business hotel, and approximately 400 apartment units. The density requested is approximately equal to the amount of development currently approved through a phased development site plan, but density and uses are being moved around on the site. For more information, contact Tom Newman at (703) 228-3782.
BUSINESS NEWS
The Arlington-based Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing prototypes of new hardware and software that will transform today's Internet into a high-speed network, up to one thousand times faster than currently possible. The "SuperNet," as it is called, will open up a whole new range of applications that require much higher resolution and throughput, in real time. An added bonus of the new system architecture is the ability to handle more traffic, so more people can be connected at one time without degrading system performance. Over the next five years DARPA will be spending $30 million per year to get the prototype up and running. If all goes according to plan, the SuperNet should be fully operational within 5 to 10 years.
Systems Integration Inc., of Arlington has achieved the #2 spot in a national ranking of the top 25 Federal 8(a) program technology companies, based on total 8(a) revenue of $36.3 million in FY'99. This climb up the 8(a) ladder began in 1995 when the two-person company, founded five years earlier by Eric Fukuchi and Don Rottman, received a $30,500 purchase order from the US PTO to study how the agency handled telephone inquiries for information. The recommendations to re-engineer the current process resulted in a $3 million initial contract. From the beginning, SII has carved out a niche in the design and implementation of call center and help desk solutions. Its demonstrated expertise has grown its 8(a) federal business base to include the Department of the Army, Defense Finance Administration, Census Bureau, Department of Transportation and US Customs, in addition to PTO. Today, SII has 185 employees at its headquarters in Crystal City and FY'99 revenues of $47.3 million. With its strong business base and core product offerings, Systems Integration Inc. should have a bright future when it becomes an 8(a) program alumnus in April 2003.
Starpower Communications, LLC, got approval last month to provide competitive cable television services to Arlington households. They will be constructing a new advanced high-capacity fiber-optic network, which will offer Arlington residents state-of-the-art additional digital video services and fast Internet access. Starpower is a joint venture of PEPCO and RCN Corporation of Princeton, NJ.
E*Trade Bank of Arlington is officially the nation's largest pure-play Internet bank and the first and only one to reach $4 billion in deposits. E*TradeBank will be moving from its Clarendon location to expand into the Ballston Tower building in spring 2000. Another Arlington success.
TeleCorp PCS, Inc. launched its SunCom digital wireless service in three new markets: Alexandria, Louisiana; Blytheville, Arkansas; and Dyersburg, Tennessee. TeleCorp is AT&T's largest affiliate, is headquartered in Arlington, VA and has licenses to serve 16.7 million people in 35 markets.
A new organization called StartupDNA announced that beginning in September, it will host a number of events focused on seed stage ventures. StartupDNA said it aims to provide support and mentoring services for early-stage ventures. "StartupDNA's mission is to help startups build a solid foundation for growth and success, by assisting them overcome all their initial difficulties, from fine tuning their business ideas, to aggregating their management team and advisory board, to preparing their presentation and giving them the opportunity to present themselves in a public forum," the organization said in a statement. On September 13, StartupDNA will host a round table discussion in Arlington entitled, "Incubators vs. Accelerators."
NC, Inc., an application service provider for content and calendar services, announced today that it has received a strategic investment of $1 million from Texas-based PopMail.com, an email marketing company. Arlington-based NC, Inc., formerly called NetCalendar, said it would use the investment to increase its marketing efforts and expand its local events content service, called Your Local Buzz. The company licenses its applications to other companies and has also launched a wireless service, called MobileBuzz. "The agreement paves the way for future investments in NC, Inc. by PopMail," the company said in a statement.
In yet another example of the growing links between Israel and the DC technology community, Arlington-based Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Clal Industries & Investments, and the Israel Infinity Fund announced that they have formed a joint venture to invest in technology companies in Israel. The amount of the fund was not disclosed. The Israel Infinity Fund is an $85 million venture capital fund; Clal Industries & Investments is one of Israel's main industrial and technology companies. The new fund will be headquartered in Northern Virginia and Tel Aviv. For more information, go to http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000816/va_fbr_joi.html.
GET TOGETHERS
Washington Techway magazine and the Arlington Department of Economic Development sponsored a TechFast for some 220 technology executives on September 7th at the Ft. Myer Officer's Club. Speakers included Brandy Thomas of Cyveillance, Chris Schroeder of Washingtonpost.com, and Jeroen van Ek from AppNet. The breakfast kicked off an effort by the Arlington technology community to organize a working group of technology executives. For more information, contact Charlotte Franklin at (703) 228-3570.
The New Media Society held its monthly "Cybersalon" in Arlington on Tuesday, September 5th. The September event focused on ways for Internet and start-up companies to gain national publicity and to build "buzz." Speakers included Randy Barrett, east coast editor for Interactive Week magazine; Mike Smith, president of Upstart Vision, Inc., a Reston-based PR firm; Colburn Akers, president of DC-based Aker Partners Marketing and PR; and Ian Hopper, a technology writer for the Associated Press.
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