Sequestration may be causing some government contractors to hold back on real estate decisions, but not Applied Engineering Management, which just relocated from Chantilly to Herndon in a deal brokered by Cushman & Wakefield's Brian McVay, Andrew Colangelo, and Jude Collins. (The photo is fromAndrew's wedding in May that we assume, following this deal, is the second happiest day in his life.) Jude tells us AEM (an IT, management consulting, and engineering firm, which just moved in to 30k SF at Brandywine's 13880 Dulles Corner Lane) was looking to take advantage of today's favorable market conditions.So it jumped at the chance to take more space (up from about 19k SF in a one-story building in Chantilly) and join scores of other DC-area tenants flying to better quality real estate.

The future arrival of the Silver Line was also a big draw for AEM, Jude says, and the firm will be within a shortdistance of a stop once service is delivered to Herndon in 2018. He says though landlords are doling out aggressiveconcession packages, activity in NoVa is stabilizing, with tenants like AEM continuing to strike while the iron's hot: "If you have confidence in your business plan, there are a lot of great options for tenants to consider today." AEM'ssustainably designed space will allow them to continue to recruit and retain the best workforce possible, he says.