WorldCom Plans Complex on Grand Scale
By Justin Blum and Stephanie Stoughton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 11, 1998; Page A01
washingtonpost.com
The nation's biggest Internet access provider has proposed building a
high-technology office campus in Loudoun County for as many as 30,000
employees that would seek to create a Silicon Valley culture for them in
the Washington suburbs.
WorldCom Inc.'s proposed development would be three times as big as
than earlier reported, containing up to 4.7 million square feet of offices --
about three-quarters the size of the Pentagon, according to plans filed
yesterday by the company.
On 534 acres near Dulles International Airport, the company asked for
county permission to build two hotels, restaurants, stores and health clubs
catering to a young, well-educated, high-tech work force.
Nearly half the office space would be used by UUNet Technologies Inc., a
WorldCom subsidiary that provides the underground cables and
electronics for much of the traffic on the Internet. The rest would provide
offices for WorldCom, a long-distance telephone company, or for other
high-tech companies if WorldCom didn't need all the space.
If WorldCom grew to 30,000 employees here, it would become the
biggest private-sector employer in the Washington region.
"It's kind of mind-boggling," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Dale
Polen Myers (R-At Large). "At the end of the day, it's the biggest
build-to-suit you've ever seen. If we can convince them that Virginia
continues to be the right place to be and that the business climate will be
one that embraces and accepts them, it will be phenomenal."
The project, which would be built in stages based partly on how fast
WorldCom grows, would be big enough to accommodate 20,000 to
30,000 employees and would be one of the largest office centers in the
region.
WorldCom sees the project as a weapon to help it win the increasingly
fierce competition among companies for high-tech workers. The campus,
in effect, would become a perquisite of the job, offering the convenience of
shops, restaurants and places where workers can be "stress managed" --
amenities largely lacking in Loudoun, a fast-growing county of
family-oriented subdivisions.
"Many of these employees are younger, single and more technologically
oriented and more highly educated than the average employee in a
manufacturing environment," the company said in its request for zoning
approval. "These employees are relatively highly paid, work long, irregular
hours, and participate in a broad range of challenging educational,
recreational and diversionary activities."
Jim Monroe, a spokesman for WorldCom, said the company's future
performance, acquisitions and other factors would determine how much of
the project is built and how many employees WorldCom moves there. The
company plans a $37 billion buyout of Washington-based MCI
Communications Corp.
"The scope of this project has not been determined and development plans
have not been finalized," Monroe said. "No final decisions have been made
in regard to operations to be based at this location."
Monroe said that the company could still pull out of the project and that
the zoning application "in no way indicates whether development of the
property will be initiated." He said WorldCom officials remain concerned
about comments made last month by Virginia Attorney General Mark L.
Earley (R) in which he called for close scrutiny by federal regulators of the
buyout of MCI.
WorldCom is one of several technology companies that have warmed to
Loudoun County. America Online Inc., the nation's largest computer online
service, moved its headquarters from Vienna to Loudoun last year and is
about a mile from the WorldCom site. Baan Co., a Dutch software firm,
recently got approval to build as much as 2.5 million square feet of office
and educational training space.
Loudoun is the nation's eighth fastest-growing county and has been
struggling to pay for schools and services for a burgeoning population.
Myers and other county officials said they were ecstatic at the prospect of
the WorldCom development, saying business taxes generated by such
large-scale projects are the key to meeting the costs of rapid residential
development.
Still, residents of the Regency, a nearby community of 143 homes that
typically sell for $350,000 each, said they feared the traffic.
"It's a little overwhelming -- can you imagine all that traffic?" said Robin
Falsone, 39, who moved from Fairfax six months ago to "escape the
congestion."
"When we bought our home," said Regency resident Vicky Edmonds, 25,
"our impression was that this was going to be a small neighborhood
surrounded by open, common land."
County officials said it's unclear how many WorldCom employees would
live in Loudoun and how the campus would affect traffic on major
highways, including the Dulles Toll Road and Routes 7 and 28.
"Obviously transportation would be a major concern," said Supervisor
Joan G. Rokus (R-Leesburg). "It might curtail somebody's ability to get to
work faster, get to the hospital, which is in that end of the county. It's a
change for that community -- a major change. Things won't be as tranquil
as it was when they moved into the county two, five or 10 years ago."
County officials said that they are putting the WorldCom zoning application
on a fast track and that a decision could be made in about 10 weeks.
WorldCom said it would like to start construction on the first UUNet
offices by June. The company said it assumes half the campus could be
completed by 2003, and the rest by 2008.
Loudoun and the state have agreed to contribute $1 million each toward
building a six-lane road connecting the property to the Dulles Greenway.
"It's exciting," said John R. Tydings, president of the Greater Washington
Board of Trade. "This is sort of another validation that we have become a
global telecommunications center."
Staff writers Susan Saulny and Stephen C. Fehr contributed to this report.
c Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
|
