How Space At Fuse Ignites The Spark For The Next Generation Of Innovators In Arlington, Virginia

As U.S. companies continue to return to the office, one thing is clear: Today’s office tenants are looking for top-tier, Class-A space that delivers better experience and value. 

The NAIOP Office Space Demand Forecast showed that Class-A buildings are driving net absorption rates across the country as companies continue to look for the highest quality spaces. 

In Northern Virginia, where the number of office jobs has now exceeded prepandemic levels, the search for offices is on the rise. Arlington companies that are looking for the next generation of Class-A space can find it at Fuse at Mason Square, said Brian Naumick, managing director of Edgemoor, which developed and owns the property. Newmark Group is assisting Edgemoor with leasing. 

“Fuse is different,” Naumick said. “A day at Fuse is more productive for companies and teams. The idea is seamless access to your office, state-of-the-art labs, a full calendar of events, all in one place. It's designed to make work more engaging, where clients interact with you in a new and unique way, and to bridge the research realm and the contract world together.”

At more than 350K SF, Fuse, which is on the Mason Square campus in the heart of Arlington, is a LEED Platinum, net-zero energy building designed to transform the innovation landscape in the Washington, D.C., region and redefine the office value proposition.  

Naumick said that while it is a trophy building, with more than 100K SF of shared space amenities — it has a digital fitness studio, a green roof and terraces, a tech concierge service and more — Fuse goes beyond that to also include features that encourage innovation. These include access to specialized labs including robotics, augmented and virtual reality, simulation, network, data visualization and secure facilities.

“Access to a wide variety of spaces, from large-scale convening areas to truly one-of-a-kind technology laboratories that don't exist in other buildings inside the Beltway — all without having to pay additional community fees — there’s nothing else like it,” Naumick said. 

These shared amenities allow Fuse tenants to use their space more efficiently, he said. Tenants typically require about 10% to 20% less space in Fuse than in comparable office buildings, he said. This is because they don’t have to build things like kitchens and large-scale conference rooms, since Fuse has three cafes, a full-service restaurant and more than 25 reservable conference rooms. This includes a 750-person full-scale conferencing space that connects with three other conferencing areas and breakout rooms. 

Fuse is also committed to delivering a personalized experience for its tenants and making their lives easier, Naumick said. He said many of the building’s tenants are entirely focused on what they need to do to earn that next contract and get that new hire to drive the next innovation. Through the building’s technology concierge, Fuse makes those connections for them. 

“We make it our business to not just know which companies are in the building, we know the individuals by name, and we know what they need to do to be successful,” he said. “We want to make sure they don't have to spend an extra ounce of energy thinking about how they must quickly schedule that conference or meet that young, talented individual they'd like to hire. We use our tech and our team to anticipate and do it on their behalf.” 

Fuse Director of Innovation Katie Fanady is an important part of facilitating all of this, he said, meeting with tenants regularly to learn what they need to be successful in the building. The team also has access to George Mason’s deep network of connections to further assist tenants in reaching their goals. 

“There is an important element here that doesn't happen elsewhere in the market: access to talent, being able to showcase and interact with researchers and graduate students, and also clients and customers that meet here,” Naumick said. 

The building offers a wide variety of spaces, from small-scale, move-in-ready Spark Suites to a 27K SF single-tenant, top-floor trophy space. Naumick said the team intentionally built this diverse array of spaces so the building could cater to everything from small startups to large enterprise companies. 

He added that many of Fuse’s tenants, including Vannevar Labs, JSI, Corvex AI, Cybastion and Oasis Hill, are great representations of the diversity of technology companies that the building was designed to serve. 

Soon, there will be a new restaurant, Wood and Iron, that will feature a 2K SF all-seasons patio that will be an asset not only for Fuse tenants, but for the community as a whole.

So far, the response from tenants in the market has been “fantastic,” Naumick said. 

“We have had tenants come in and tell us, ‘This is Disneyland for technology companies,’” he said. “We've put in a lot of effort over the years to make sure we get to this point, but really, the building is only step one. The environment and what we curate and create here are really what will propel us forward.” 

Fuse has spaces available for entrepreneurs of all sizes. Visit here to learn more. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Edgemoor and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.