What follows is a more detailed look at four of the state's largest metro areas. It has attracted so many high-tech companies it is assuming a newer role as a center for technology conventions as well. This year Fairfax County will host the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology, an assembly of technology executives from around the world. All of those kinds of companies want to be here. Clark says the Dulles corridor, which stretches from Tysons Corner to Washington Dulles International Airport, is the most active.
Rents are on the way up, prompting some tenants to look elsewhere.
Lack of available space, a market condition since mid-1996, resulted in an 11 percent decline in Northern Virginia's share of the regional office market by the middle of last year, Carey Winston analysts say. Developers are struggling to keep up. Gregory H. Leisch, president of Delta Associates, the market research subsidiary of Carey Winston, notes that 7.1 million square feet of office space is under construction. Nearly one-third of that total already has been gobbled up in preleasing agreements with such tenants as Teleglobe, Landmark Systems, Vista Technologies and DynCorp. Investors are also getting in on the action.