Maryland dangles 3 sites in quest for Northrop Grumman HQ 

Posted: 7:00 pm Tue, February 16, 2010
By Nicholas Sohr
Daily Record Business Writer

ANNAPOLIS – Maryland has formally offered Northrop Grumman Corp. a package of incentives in the state’s push to land the defense giant’s headquarters in the state’s suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers and economic development officials were tight-lipped about the nature of the deal, which could include tax breaks and other economic incentives, because Maryland’s proposal will be compared closely with those offered by Virginia and the District of Columbia, which are also vying for the corporate headquarters.

“There are three attractive sites they are looking at in the state of Maryland — one in Rockville, one in College Park and National Harbor [in Prince George’s County],” said House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel. “They’re going to make the determination where the best economic incentives are for them.”

Economic development officials from Maryland, Virginia and the district have been crafting packages to snag Northrop’s headquarters since the company announced Jan. 4 it would uproot from its longtime home in Los Angeles and move to the capital region with its concentration of defense contractors and decision makers.

“We put together an aggressive proposal that I think would attract any company of Northrop Grumman’s size and scope,” said Shaun Adamec, spokesman for Gov. Martin O’Malley. “There are obviously specifics in it that we won’t disclose right now, but there are also things outside of the package that ought to be attractive to Northrop Grumman.”

O’Malley, economic development Secretary Christian S. Johansson, and leaders of both houses of the General Assembly met with two Northrop executives Friday in the State House to discuss the proposal and express their commitment to wooing the company to Maryland.

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“We’ve had a full-court press in making the case that Maryland represents the best case for Northrop Grumman to establish their new headquarters,” Johansson said.

“One of the key things they’re looking for is proximity to key customers, such as the Pentagon,” said Johansson. “We’ve worked to make sure they have looked at all the options (locations) that make sense for their company. But they’ve been looking at this longer than we have. They’ve been looking at space and availability for quite some time, so I think they generally have a good idea of where they see themselves.”

Busch and his counterpart, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, said they promised to champion any aspects of the state’s proposal that would need legislative approval.

Adamec said some pieces, but not all, of the proposal would need the legislature’s stamp.

A Northrop spokesman declined in an e-mailed statement to comment on specifics of the proposals received by the company.

“We also continue to consider multiple locations in the two states and in the district,” wrote Dan McClain, the company spokesman. “We expect to announce our final site selection in the March/April timeframe.”

Northrop already has a large presence in Maryland with about 11,000 employees. Its electronic systems division is based in Linthicum. Virginia, too, is familiar territory for the company, with sector headquarters in Herndon, Newport News and Reston, and its governmental relations office in Arlington.

Both states and the nation’s capital provide easy access to the halls of power and the movers and shakers who make the decisions that directly impact Northrop’s business.

“If you look at the District, if you look at Northern Virginia, if you look at Maryland, obviously we share a lot of strengths,” Johansson said. “But we think we have some things that make Maryland unique.”

He and other officials pointed to a range of factors, including the state’s top-ranked public schools, high-profile Northrop clients like the National Security Agency, key elected officials like U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a member of a defense spending subcommittee.

Northrop supplies a range of defense products to the country’s military, including bombers, unmanned aircraft, satellites, radar and navigation systems, communications software, amphibious assault ships, nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

The company employs about 120,000 worldwide. About one-third of them are in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.