Special Feature
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The Right Site for Biotech, Distribution |
If your company's contemplating a new biotechnology, high-tech or distribution facility on the U.S. East Coast, don't overlook Maryland. It's got the right mix of skilled workers, research facilities, market access and other critical business requirements to make your operation a success.
Companies are putting down roots in Maryland in record numbers these days, and it's easy to see why. Maryland simply has the critical location assets businesses need to establish profitable operations -- the right stuff, if you will.
Indeed, Maryland is a state blessed with an enviable geographic location, a superior transportation infrastructure and an eager, well-educated work force. The state is home to 58 institutions of higher learning, with easy access to 18 more colleges and universities in nearby Washington, D.C.
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"Maryland truly understands the critical role that business plays in the long-term shaping of the state," says James T. Brady, secretary of the state's Dept. of Business and Economic Development. "We can provide companies with a high-quality work force, and in turn provide all of those workers with a quality of life very helpful to their work and social well-being. There is something here for everyone." |
In fact, companies from manufacturing and distribution to telecommunications and high technology are now discovering profitable locations all across Maryland. The state's cornucopia of location options has recently attracted facilities as diverse as Nabisco's food manufacturing plant, leading retailer Saks Fifth Avenue's distribution center and KeyCall's financial services call center.
Manufacturing and distribution have long been strengths for Maryland, while computer software, telecommunications and biotechnology are a bridge to the next century. But whatever the nature of the business, companies are finding Maryland a niche for success.
"We have a lot of things going for us right now; we are moving in a positive direction in continuing to improve the business climate," Brady says. "Things such as our transportation infrastructure, which is the envy of states around us, our educated work force and proximity to federal entities really give us a leg up. And we plan to continue to market our considerable assets."
Brady has a strong conviction to make the state more attractive to business by reining in operating costs and improving the regulatory environment. Coupled with Gov. Parris Glendening's unabashedly pro-business posture, the state is rapidly becoming even more competitive.
"This is about job creation and competitiveness," Brady said. "It is about truly making the state competitive in the 21st century."
Manufacturing Mecca
As it has been for two centuries, manufacturing is one of the powerful engines driving Maryland's economy.
Maryland's manufacturing base is broad, including everything from auto assembly to biotechnology. And with defense industry consolidation ongoing since the end of the Cold War, many Maryland manufacturers have successfully shifted production from armaments to commercial endeavors.
The state's breadbasket -- the Eastern Shore -- has long been home to food processing manufacturers. In Wicomico and Worcester counties, the poultry industry is particularly strong.
Manufacturing is also booming in Harford County, where a number of industries are active and growing under the shadow of the county's largest employer -- the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. The facility employs 14,000 military and civilians.
"Our new manufacturing operations may be less sexy than our well-publicized distribution centers, but we continue to grow our manufacturing base," says Paul Gilbert, director of Harford County's Office of Economic Development.
Distribution Destination
If a product isn't made in Maryland, chances are good it spends some time there in a warehouse or is unloaded at the port in Baltimore. Maryland's biggest city is less than a day's drive from one-third of the country's population.
With about as many people working in distribution as manufacturing in Maryland, the numbers add up to booming times for the sector.
Massachusetts-based Staples, for instance, liked what it saw in Maryland. This spring the company moves into its new 840,000-sq.-ft. (78,000-sq.-m.) office supplies distribution center in Washington County. Just off interstate highways 81 and 70, the new facility is bringing 700 jobs to the region. A county and state incentives package helped Maryland beat out Virginia for the project.
"We had a site ready to go," explains Sharon Disque, economic development coordinator for Washington County's economic development office. "Just about a year ago we rezoned a substantial area that had not been available for development. The county has made a real effort to establish an industrial corridor adjacent to I-81 with all utilities and needed infrastructure."
Harford County, meanwhile, is proving to be a veritable distribution magnet.The county's bevy of existing distribution facilities, including those of high-profile companies like Coca-Cola, Clorox, Fila USA, Frito Lay, The Gap, General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Michelin, Pier 1 and Texas Instruments, continues to grow.
Chicago-based Solo Cup, for example, is currently establishing its East Coast distribution center in Harford County. The 500,000-sq.-ft. (46,450-sq.-m.) center will be the company's largest distribution operation nationwide.
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That new facility follows on the heels of New York-based retailer Saks Fifth Avenue's decision to build a 468,000-sq.-ft. (43,477-sq.-m.) distribution center in Harford County to serve its department stores in 22 states.
"I think we have proven that the ready availability of buildings and industrial properties makes deals happen," Gilbert says. "We also do tax credits, training grants and fast tracking of permits. With an approved site plan, a company can have a building permit in two weeks. Without site approval, it's still only four to six weeks." |
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Harford and Baltimore counties stress interstate and port connections in marketing distribution sites. Other hotbeds of distribution activity include Howard and Anne Arundel counties, in the center of the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Location advantages there include ready access to the Interstate 95 corridor, Baltimore-Washington International Airport and business centers to the north, south and west.
Biotechnology Boom
Biotechnology research and warehousing might be worlds apart in some respects, but both fit quite well into Maryland's diverse stable of location options.
This fall, Montgomery County-based biotechnology firm MedImmune will have completed its new manufacturing facility in neighboring Frederick County. Following FDA approval for use, the company in 1998 or 1999 will likely begin shipping CytoGam, a drug used to prevent serious infection
in transplant patients. The MedImmune project marks the first manufacture of human therapeutic product in Maryland and a major step forward for the state's concentration in biotechnology firms.
"It's a win for the state," a company spokesman says. Landing the new MedImmune facility is also a major win for Frederick County, which outmaneuvered a competing site in Ohio with the help of an incentives package.
In a larger sense, the MedImmune
project is a clear sign that biotechnology is a major industry of the future for Maryland.
Indeed, Maryland has worked hard to bring itself to the forefront of the biotechnology industry. Federal grants have been sought -- and won. Funding has been extended to companies looking to start up or expand. Partnerships have been formed bringing together government, academia and private enterprise.
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In just such a partnership, the BioCenter, a 54,000-sq.-ft. (5,000-sq.-m.) biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility, recently opened on land donated by the city of Baltimore adjacent to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Research Campus. The first of its kind in the United States, the facility is the result of a landmark public/private partnership, the Maryland Bioprocessing Center. It was financed through a US$16.5 million capital investment by the state, a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant and $500,000 in land value and infrastructure improvements contributed by the city of Baltimore. |
"The BioCenter facility is truly unique and provides a critical resource necessary to move medical products out of the lab and into the hands of patients," Gov. Glendening said at the opening. "In order to keep Maryland-grown discoveries and the resulting jobs at home and attract companies to Maryland, the state made a strategic investment in the future of our biotech companies through support of the BioCenter."
Much of the state's biotech research business is under the umbrella of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), which has four primary components working in a collaboration of academia, industry and government. UMBI's Center of Marine Biotechnology is the cornerstone of the $160 million Columbus Center gracing Baltimore's waterfront skyline -- a part of the city which attracts 7 million tourists a year.
In a major Maryland coup, world-renowned virologist and AIDS researcher Dr. Robert Gallo recently decided to establish his Institute of Human Virology in the $40 million Medical Biotechnology Center in Baltimore. It is the first research center in the country to combine the disciplines of basic research, epidemiology and clinical research toward the discovery of diagnostics and therapeutics in human virology.
The virology center was formed as a partnership of the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore, the University of Maryland System, the University of Maryland Medical System and Gallo.
Following Gallo's 30-year career at the National Institutes of Health, he was drawn "by Maryland's eagerness to accommodate us in our efforts to establish this historic institute. The opportunity to work with the exceptional and talented professionals throughout the University of Maryland system, along with the resources available, could not be passed up," he said in making his announcement.
High-Tech Haven
High technology is an equally strong growth area for Maryland, and high-tech companies are clustering in several counties.
"There's probably 1 million square feet (92,900 sq. m.) of new high-technology building going on now and planned for the near term in southern Maryland," says Martin Fairclough, head of economic and community development for St. Mary's County. Moreover, high-tech companies have also established strongholds in Garrett, Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. All of those areas have community colleges with strong technical programs to enhance training capabilities.
And in rural Wicomico County, on the lower Eastern Shore, some 10 electronics firms together employ about 2,000 people -- making electronics the second-largest industry sector there, says David J. Ryan, director of Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development.
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"Agriculture was and is still the largest employer, but we now have a critical mass of electronics firms," Ryan says. "That's great for recruiting other high-tech companies looking for skilled employees. The support services these companies need are here, and while it's hard to put on paper, a strong work ethic and sense of community are a huge draw for them."
To the northeast, "Harford County may be the best-kept high-tech secret in the state in light of what we do have here," Gilbert says. "With Aberdeen Proving Ground, it makes sense that we have such companies locating in the county." |
Harford County is looking to make its high-tech future public knowledge. The county has created HEAT -- Higher Education and Applied Technology -- which partners educational institutions throughout the region with companies needing employees trained in high-tech disciplines. In a partnership of the state, Harford Community College and the city of Aberdeen, construction on a 40,000-sq.-ft. (3,716-sq.-m.) industrial/flex building was started last fall for companies participating in the HEAT program.
In Prince George's County, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center and theCollege Park campus of the University of Maryland are huge draws to aerospace, telecommunications and computer software firms.
In adjacent Howard County, the largest private employer is Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Richard W. Story, executive director of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, says the facility has been a draw to smaller technology-oriented companies. "What we have here is a county where over 91 percent of the people have a high school diploma, almost 40 percent have a college degree and almost 25 percent have graduate degrees," he says. SS
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-- Esme Neely is a free-lance writer in Annapolis, Md. |
