A pulse in the outer suburbs? That's what the Matan Cos reports. After a few high-profile acquisitions last year, the firm has inked two big new leases in suburban Maryland. (Unlike a hard drive, it's good news when things get filled right after purchase.)

The Frederick-based firm's JP Matan (with colleague Mike Jezienicki at our MoCo forecast yesterday) tells us the firm leased 133k SF at its newly acquired Milestone Business Park in Germantown with DRS Technologies, adding that the deal shows Germantown's value in avoiding congestion "plaguing the southern I-270 Corridor." Jeff Garibaldi, Jerry Moore, and Chuck Bower of The Garibaldi Group and Adam Nachlas of Manekin repped DRS. Matan purchased the three-property Milestone complex for $128M earlier this year; it also picked up an industrial building in DC's Ivy City and bought out partner FCP's stake in a National Cancer Institute-anchored project in Frederick.

Matan has also inked another big Germantown deal, this one at its 270 Corporate Center at 20250 Century Blvd: JDSU signed a 45k SF deal for the top two floors, repped by JLL's Amanda Davis, Mia Eglinton, and Peter Briskman. The key to landing JDSU, JP says (in addition to JLL's efforts) was stabilizing the building's in-place financing, as well as $5M in upcoming capital improvements.