Located on a 1.6-acre parcel just blocks from Rockville Pike and minutes from Interstate 270, the existing USP headquarters building, which the company owns, was developed in 1965 and consists of about 67,500 sf. USP also owns a 2.8-acre parcel behind the building where it will erect the two new structures. One of the buildings will consist of 76,900 sf for additional research and development, and the second building will feature 79,100 sf for supplemental laboratory space.

With USP's home on target to more than double in size, the company will be able to consolidate its area staff under one roof. Confined by the limited accommodations at the Twinbrook site, the company decided to take on additional space last summer by leasing just over 50,000 sf at 1801 Rockville Pike, a 176,000-sf office facility just across the CSX freight train tracks from its headquarters.

Had the company chose to lease one large segment of class A office space in the Rockville area instead of constructing new space, it would have been faced with fairly high leasing rates. According to Cushman & Wakefield's Fourth Quarter 2004 Office Statistics report, the average leasing rate for class A office space in the Rockville/North Bethesda market is $28.18 per sf. With the county's approval under its belt, USP plans to get started on construction, which was originally slated to begin in January, in the immediate future.