Fairfax County Economic Development Authority Opens Boston Location

The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) has hired a Boston-area communications firm to help market Fairfax County to New England companies considering an expansion to the Metropolitan Washington area.

Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications will represent the FCEDA in greater-Boston. FCEDA said it chose to open a marketing office in Boston because of its similarities with the D.C. metro area.

“With its concentration of IT companies, strong venture capital community, life-science initiatives and renowned academic institutions, the Boston area shares many economic similarities with the Fairfax-Washington area, and we are opening a Boston office to show New England companies how they can benefit by expanding with a Fairfax County location,” FCEDA President and CEO Jerry Gordon said in a statement.

Gordon also told Patch the FCEDA has had a Boston presence in the past, developing a network through which it can learn of potential expansions and new business opportunities.

“We’ve been marketing in Boston for 30 years,” Gordon said. “We have built up a lot of relationships with companies and intermediaries, if you will – things like chambers and technology councils and universities – through which we can get to companies who are likely candidates [for Fairfax County expansion].”

The Boston office is the FCEDA’s eighth location, including its Tysons Corner headquarters. The authority’s only other U.S. location is in Los Angeles. The FCEDA also has international offices in Bangalore, London, Munich, Seoul and Tel Aviv.

Gordon said the FCEDA could expect a positive return on investment in about four years.

“We can base it on our California experience,” he told Patch. “I would say there’s going to be a year or two where we are not getting a 1-to-1 return on the investment because it’s an exercise in relationship building. After that there’s probably a year or maybe even two where we’re going to break even and then thereafter I would expect a return on investment that exceeds 2 to 1, 3 to 1, maybe 5 to 1.”

The FCEDA signed a one-year, $72,000 contract with Rasky Baerlein with an option to extend up to three years.