Fort Meade leads the competition for new U.S. cyber center site
already do business with the Pentagon in fields dealing with electronic data and cybersecurity.
What is more, the government agencies moving to Fort Meade under the BRAC plan are also key players in the field, including the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Christian Johansson, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, said the agency could result in as many as 50,000 government and contracting jobs, bringing in salaries of about $1.7 billion annually. Even if the agency is not located at Fort Meade, he said, much of its work could be done by defense contractors in Maryland working with NSA. Annapolis has recently launched a handful of initiatives designed to beef up the state’s cybersecurity industry, including the recent formation of a new Federal Facilities Advisory Board to catalogue and seek information from defense contractors.
The prospect could also mean big bucks for local businesses and those firms in the information technology industry, said Sarah Djamshidi, executive director of the Chesapeake Innovation Center in Annapolis.
The center was established to help startup companies developing homeland security technologies, including connecting those firms with agencies like the NSA in need of the kinds of products those firms are developing. It has connections with the NSA and its defense contractors, and Djamshidi said she expects the new agency at Fort Meade could steer more business to those firms and encourage other companies to specialize in the field.
“This is fantastic news for the tech community as well as for local entrepreneurs,” she said. “It provides another angle for us to bulk up our services.” In addition, she said, the new agency could help spur the development of new commercial products specializing in protection from computer hackers.
The NSA has long been a desired business partner for Maryland’s business community and economic development officials. Groups including the Maryland Technology Development Corp. have looked to the agency over the past several years to help it spawn new commercial enterprises in much the same way as the National Institutes of Health has done for the biotechnology industry in Montgomery County.
When combined with BRAC and growth at Fort Meade, including planned expansion projects by the NSA, the cybersecurity agency could help kick-start millions of square feet of stalled and pending development near the base.
Some of the region’s largest developers are watching the Defense Department closely. Among them is Tate Armstrong, president of Konterra Realty LLC of Beltsville. Konterra has built its first 125,000-square-foot building at its Annapolis Junction Business Park on Dorsey Run Road, which is about 60 percent leased.
