Tech Firms Gravitate Toward Tyson

MCLEAN, VA-Tysons Corner has been carving a niche out for itself in the Washington, DC technology and biotechnology community, establishing its own identity next to such well known Northern Virginia tech enclaves as Reston, Herndon and Dulles. Local tech firms such as Blink Communications and Bantu are either opening new offices or relocating entirely to Tysons, in order to follow their own customers that have located there. Meanwhile, developers such as Lerner Enterprises continue to build out in the area.

The North Bethesda, MD-based firm will develop an 18-story 472,000-sf office tower at 1775 Tysons Blvd. in the Corporate Office Centre at Tysons II. Construction will begin in the summer of 2007 and the building will be delivered two years later. It will be the fifth office building at the five-million-sf, mixed-use complex.

Mark D. Lerner, a principal of Lerner Enterprises, notes that market demand is so strong for space in the area that Tysons II, with more than 1.4 million sf, has less than a 1% vacancy rate. In part that is due to companies such as Bantu, a provider of enterprise instant messaging, that are moving to Tysons, specifically to be closer to its key customers and partners.