Beltway Biz

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The rites of spring: Home pages are busting out all over -- add to the list Don Beyer Volvo, and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, which will put up a database of more than 7,000 records it has kept over the years -- including a list of more than 4,000 "historically underutilized" businesses, whatever that means. The listings are meant to identify potential vendors and contractors. A listing of available office and industrial space, including zoning classifications, also dwells there. Both Beyer and the authority share a common provider of Webmastery: BTG Inc., which has also managed to do a sweet deal as government provider of Web brow-ser Netscape. See the Fairfax page at www.eda.co.fairfax.va.us/fceda

Additions and subtractions: Gone north from the Netplex to the Waltham, Mass., area is high-tech holding company Primark Inc., the corporate parent of The Analytic Sciences Corp., among other things. We know that's old news by now, but it's worth logging, as is the move by Orkand Corp. from Silver Spring, Md., to Tysons Corner, Va., which at 7799 Leesburg Pike would be a mere 701 addresses from the Biz home offices. By the way, you might like to know that Fairfax County office space vacancy rates declined to 9.9 percent by year's end 1994. In 1993, the rate was 12.4 percent. The high number in vacancy rates was 18.3 percent five years ago. Or, if you're as bummed about Tysons-style access roads as we are, maybe not.

The rites of spring: Home pages are busting out all over -- add to the list Don Beyer Volvo, and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, which will put up a database of more than 7,000 records it has kept over the years -- including a list of more than 4,000 "historically underutilized" businesses, whatever that means. The listings are meant to identify potential vendors and contractors. A listing of available office and industrial space, including zoning classifications, also dwells there. Both Beyer and the authority share a common provider of Webmastery: BTG Inc., which has also managed to do a sweet deal as government provider of Web brow-ser Netscape. See the Fairfax page at www.eda.co.fairfax.va.us/fceda

We know the procurement system is a mess, but this hits below the belt: David Drabkin, senior assistant to Colleen Preston at the Pentagon, reported Monday that underwear procurements at the Department of Defense take more than a year to complete. Has something to do with a requirement that elastic to hold Milspec briefs in place has to be made in the U.S. Rumor has it, by the way (though we hesitate to print rumors -- puh-LEEZE!), and this has nothing to do with underwear, but Colleen Preston may be moving over to the CIA with John Hamre, the Defense Department's controller, when Big Man John Deutch takes over The Agency.

Smoke N' Mirrors Inc., Herndon, Va., recently celebrated its two-year anniversary (now with 43 employees, some righteous barbecue and garbage cans full o' cold Sam Adams) as a telecommunications systems integrator to financials such as Sallie Mae and a bunch of other clients. CEO Jeff Iverson, who was just named to Who's Who in American Business, is a major Star Trek fan, and may be the only local CEO with a talking cubic Borg Assimilator in his office. Resistance is futile.


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