Once home to an oil behemoth, the 117-acre ExxonMobil Merrifield campus will turn into a hub of innovation and genomics research. Inova CEO Knox Singleton announced this morning Inova would start using the site later this year for its planned medical expansion. (Can oil derricks be used to extract DNA from a chromosome? That'd help save on conversion  costs.) Inova says the site will attract renowned clinicians, researchers and business people, bringing economic growth. The Inova Translational Medicine Institute and the Inova Comprehensive Cancer and Research Institute will anchor the new site.

ExxonMobil tapped Cassidy Turley (now DTZ) two years ago to market the 1.3M SF campus. And congrats to JLL for repping Inova. A source told us then that the buildings were as close to modern as can be for something built in the early '80s and offered plenty of security and expansion options. We also reported that Merrifield is becoming an entrepreneurial hub with companies like CustomInk, LastPass and Constellation West moving to or expanding to the Fairfax County submarket. The Washington Business Journal says the negotiations, which wrapped up Friday morning, include a 99-year lease and the right of first refusal to acquire the property.