Almost 18 months to the day after government contractor incubator Eastern Foundry cut the ribbon on its first location in Crystal City, it has signed to open its second location, this time in Rosslyn.
JLL's Andy O'Brien, Sen. Mark Warner, Eastern Foundry co-founder Geoff Orazem and Vornado/Charles E. Smith president Mitchell Schear opened the 21k SF Eastern Foundry in December 2014 at 2011 Crystal Dr. At some point this fall, expect a similar picture with Geoff, Andy (who brokered both deals), Eastern Foundry co-founder Andrew Chang and a Monday Properties exec at 1100 Wilson Blvd, where location No. 2 will open with 19k SF.
Geoff says Crystal City is 100% occupied, and the perception of that space is that it's entirely focused on Department of Defense contracting. While that's not entirely true, he says the Rosslyn location will appeal to companies looking to break into a more diverse array of government agencies, such as the Department of State, one Metro stop away in Foggy Bottom.
"At other incubators and shared working spaces, there’s a lot of turnover," Geoff tells Bisnow. "We’ve found there isn’t a lot of turnover here. Offices don’t come available. Once they’re occupied, they’re occupied. So we needed a second location."
Geoff says 50% of Rosslyn's space is pre-committed, and despite some cosmetic build-out over the next few months, the first tenants will start moving in next week.
Eastern Foundry has been looking for a second location for about a year, from Ballston to Alexandria to DC to Bethesda, but it took so long to find a space because Geoff wanted somewhere perfect, he says. 1100 Wilson has a roof deck, shared amenities and Rosslyn's accessibility to DC, Tysons and the rest of the region.
