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As part of a $2.5 billion investment in Northern Virginia, Inova broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art Inova Franconia-Springfield Hospital on Sept. 28, 2024. Local officials, healthcare leaders, and community members marked this significant milestone in expanding access and transforming the healthcare experience in Northern Virginia.

“The Inova Franconia-Springfield Campus will ensure more families in our community have access to high-quality, compassionate care closer to home,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay. “These projects highlight Inova’s commitment to partnering with local governments to strengthen healthcare delivery and improve health outcomes for all of our residents.”

Located adjacent to the Inova HealthPlex at Franconia-Springfield, the 985,000-square-foot project is not far from the future Franconia Governmental Center that’s now under construction on Beulah Road. The new Inova Franconia-Springfield Campus will bring inpatient care to the community, offering residents of Fairfax County and beyond ready access to a broader range of top-tier healthcare services. This 110-bed facility will be equipped with advanced emergency care, surgical services, and specialized inpatient care, along with a focus on community health and wellness. The location is ideal for expanding local access to care for patients across the region, while also providing seamless connections to Inova’s broader network of services.

The campus was designed by Ballinger and Ennead Architects and DPR Construction will lead the construction efforts, with completion expected in 2028. Philanthropy plays a crucial role in supporting the expansion of Inova services by providing essential funding that enhances facilities and expands access to healthcare services in the community.

Find out more at www.inova.org.

Bigger footprint: Alarm.com Holdings has renewed its headquarters lease at The Boro in Tysons, reported Washington Business Journal. The residential and commercial security company inked a lease for about 246,000 square feet at East Boro III, at 8281 Greensboro Drive, according to a third quarter market report from brokerage CBRE. It’s the largest lease by far highlighted in the report — more than 59,000 square feet bigger than second place — and also represents a nearly one-third increase over the firm’s prior office footprint there.

Largest international expansion in United’s history: United Airlines plans to add three new destinations next year to better link Washington Dulles International Airport with more nonstop flights to Africa and Europe, reported Washington Business Journal in subscriber content. The new nonstop flights will be to and from Nice, France; Venice, Italy; and Dakar, Senegal. Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of global network planning and alliances at United, said during a media call the new flights will mark the airline’s largest international expansion in its history.

Hurricane response: Chantilly-based UltiSat, an authorized provider of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication (SATCOM) solutions to the U.S. Government, played a crucial role in the response to Hurricane Helene, UltiSat announced. Collaborating closely with one of the largest federal disaster response and humanitarian relief agencies, UltiSat has provided communication services vital to both the pre-planning and relief efforts in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. UltiSat helped government agencies deploy hundreds of LEO SATCOM systems to storm impacted areas. “Preparing for and responding to large scale emergencies depends on rapid deployment of communications to places where there may be no infrastructure left standing,” said David Myers, president and CEO at UltiSat. “We are committed to embracing our client’s missions as our own. There is no greater obligation than to help the real people impacted by the effects of a widespread disaster.”

Mission-critical tech: Toni Townes-Whitley, CEO of Reston-based SAIC and one of only two Black women running a Fortune 500 company, explained the power of mission-critical tech in an article in Inc. by Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. “While her counterparts at other tech companies often like to boast about their latest applications, systems, and software in futuristic or lofty ways, Townes-Whitley touts SAIC’s strength in what she calls ‘gritty tech,” Mehta wrote. “Gritty is when you’re in a mission-critical environment. It’s how you receive data, how you integrate with old and new systems [in a way] that people think is seamless,” Townes-Whitley said. “We do all that integration; we make all those connections. Does it feel a little blue-collar? Maybe. But we love getting into technology at that level.”

No more need to thumb through gardening books! Fairfax County-based BloomCatch founder and “chief plant officer” Raymond Magee was interviewed by DC News Now about the plant identification app company that he founded in 2016. The company has received community support, with a grant from Fairfax County and more. “We’re now in, I think, 14 states plus D.C.,” Magee said. “We’ve grown tremendously since then. And we were able to partner with Google. So we now have Google Gemini, our AI is powered by Google Gemini.” Magee believes the app will play an important role in helping to maintain a relationship with the environment.

Building innovation solutions: Tysons-based Raft ranked at no. 9 on LinkedIn’s list of “Top Startups 2024: The 10 companies on the rise in Washington, D.C. Two companies with Fairfax County locations also ranked on the list:  San Francisco-based TRM Labs, which has a Herndon location, at no. 3; and Salt Lake City-based Strider Technologies, which has a Tysons location, at no. 5. “These companies aren’t just growing fast locally and garnering attention from investors and jobseekers — they’re also building innovative solutions that are shaping the future of their industries,” according to LinkedIn.

Strategic investment: Tysons-based Kajeet, a provider of wireless solutions for education and enterprise markets, announced a strategic investment from MWP Growth Capital. This investment, part of a controlled recapitalization, positions Kajeet to accelerate its expansion across high-growth sectors, further solidifying its leadership in the rapidly evolving wireless and IoT markets, according to Kajeet. “This recapitalization marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Kajeet,” said Ben Weintraub, CEO of Kajeet. “With MWP Growth Capital’s support, we are well-positioned to accelerate our efforts to bring scalable solutions to market and expand our reach across high growth sectors of the market. Our core focus remains providing reliable, secure, and managed wireless services that empower our customers to thrive in the connected world.” citybiz has more.

Robust, scalable solutions: Clarifai, a Delaware-based artificial intelligence company that specializes in computer vision, natural language processing and audio recognition, has partnered with Herndon-based Crimson Phoenix, a provider of data-enabled solutions, that has additional offices in Washington, D.C. and Carlyle, Ohio, Clarifai announced. “By teaming with Clarifai, we aim to solve the most challenging problems of computer vision models and to do it with the efficiency and scale that the Defense and Intelligence industries need. Both Clarifai and Crimson Phoenix have a demonstrated history of delivering mission-critical support to the military, providing the security and resilience our client’s demand. With extensive experience in deploying both edge and cloud solutions, we ensure robust, scalable capabilities tailored to the unique needs of our clients,” said Brad Becker, EVP of Crimson Phoenix. Intelligence Community News has more.

Microelectronics projects: Tysons-based HII Mission Technologies will lead one of the four new microelectronics projects stemming from the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to strengthen the nation’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities and reduce dependency on foreign sources of microelectronics, HII announced. “We’re now part of the U.S. reclaiming the microelectronics industry and eliminating our dependency on foreign technology,” said Dino Cencetti, vice president of C5ISR systems operation at Mission Technologies. “We are honored to be a part of this entire program and appreciative of all the work completed by the consortium, hubs and everyone involved. We are excited to get this work going and enable next generation, digital modernization and miniaturization made right here in the U.S.A.”

Nine-figure car sale: Open Road Capital, a Fairfax investment firm backed by private equity giant Bain Capital, closed a deal to acquire a majority stake in the Beyer Auto Group, a family-owned group of five dealerships across Northern Virginia. A price was not disclosed but the Washington Business Journal said it has learned that it is a nine-figure transaction, including real estate. Beyer has Volvo Dealerships in Falls Church and Dulles along with Subaru and Land Rover dealerships in Alexandria and Beyer Kia in Falls Church.

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Contract Wins

ManTech (Herndon) won a $63 million recompete contract from Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division for the systems design modernization of the U.S. Navy’s seaborne underway replenishment. ExecutiveBiz

HII Mission Technologies (Tysons) won a $75 million task order with the U.S. Navy Integrated Training Systems to provide systems engineering support for training systems used on ships to improve combat preparedness for sailors. WashingtonExec

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October 29, 2024 — NVTC Cyber Summit and Cyber50 Awards. NVTC’s Cyber Summit and Cyber50 awards will highlight the latest cybersecurity trends, technologies, and federal policies and gather the best and brightest minds in the cyber and national security sectors. Click here to register.

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