Northrop Grumman is the latest company to move corporate HQ here (Reston: houses, buying)

[Caladium]

Virginia Business - News: Reports say Northrop Grumman moving to Washington area

Northrop Grumman reported today that it will be moving its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to our area by summer 2011. The site has not yet been determined, but considering how many buildings it has in Chantilly and Herndon I'd bet that's where it will be.

[cdmurphy]

I wish Loudoun would land this one -- especially after losing Volkswagen. Here's an interesting article about that, and Loudoun's outgoing economic development director:

Resignation provides fresh start for economic development (Loudoun Times)

We need these types of companies to expand our commercial tax base. There's already far too much stress on homeowners. We already have one of the highest property tax rates in the Commonwealth ($1.245 per $100 assessed value) and as they start budget talks they are saying that the rate would need to jump to $1.509 to cover the FY11 shortfall.

[blu_monk]

Oh. I thought they were already HQ'd here.

[TPL]

I can see NG easily establishing their HQ in Reston. They already have a highly visible, very accessible corporate office at the former TRW building (At the corner of Reston Pkwy., and Sunset Hills Rd.).

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by blu_monk

Oh. I thought they were already HQ'd here.

Nope, they just do a lot of work here. Which is why the company is making this move. All the work is out here and will be for quite some time, it makes sense to have HQ here too.

Northrop has a history of being very generous to the community that houses its HQ, yet another reason to hope it lands in Loudoun.

[ChristineVA]

I just read that their HQ move will only bring 300 employees to this area. Most of them are already here.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

I just read that their HQ move will only bring 300 employees to this area. Most of them are already here.

That's still 300 upper management people moving to the area. I figure they'll bring money with them and they'll be buying homes and paying local taxes. So it's a good thing.

[sbullet]

Does corporate focus more on the business stuff?

[car54]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

...We need these types of companies to expand our commercial tax base...

Yeah, unless the tax breaks they offer in order to "land" a company are so large that there is little gained except bragging rights...

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by Caladium

Nope, they just do a lot of work here. Which is why the company is making this move. All the work is out here and will be for quite some time, it makes sense to have HQ here too.

Northrop has a history of being very generous to the community that houses its HQ, yet another reason to hope it lands in Loudoun.

Actually (and despite my userid I do not work for Northrup Grumman) they have a lot going on out in LA with former large TRW facilities out there. In another life I worked on a project and traveled out to what at that time was TRW and there is a massive amount of folks employed at the technical level there. However, it probably isn't quite as many as in the DC area. And, Northrup Grumman has locations all over the USA, much like other defense contractors do.

Corporate high level management is so far removed from the day to day operations at the technical level, that they could be located almost anywhere. My company, another defense contractor - has its corporate HQ elsewhere, but that area is also where there is a fair amount of defense related activity and technical offices for the company. But in reality, my company has offices in a great number of states - especially those of where companies it bought up were located, and some of those were rather large companies or pieces of companies (companies selling their defense business, for example).

However, one thing might be viewed as a benefit is for the upper management to be closer to where their customer is, which a lot of their customer base will be based in the DC area, at least at the higher levels of the customer, obviously. That's one thing that springs to my mind, as why they may have thought to relocate here. More easier to mantain high level contacts with the customer, and to solicit new business. That's the sort of things upper level management at the corporate HQ level would be engaged in.