Indian Head Science and Technology Park to Create Charles County Jobs
In a broad sense, energetics is defined as the branch of physics that studies energy, but George Robertson has a more colorful description: “It’s about things that go whish and boom, in other words, propellants and things that explode.”
As Charles County director of economic development, Robertson says the area is branding itself as the Energetics Corridor, thanks to the presence of the U.S. Naval Support Facility Indian Head and the 277-acre Indian Head Science and Technology Park under development nearby. The military base’s specialties include energetics research, weapons development and detonation science.
“The Indian Head Science and Technology Park certainly has the potential to serve as a major catalyst for job growth in Charles County,” says Capt. Catie Hanft, commanding officer for Naval Support Activity South Potomac and commander of the Indian Head base. She calls the new park “a linchpin” in the Energetics Corridor strategy and predicts that the park’s proximity to the base “will be a natural draw to high-tech companies, in particular, that support Navy and other Department of Defense missions on the base.”
That, in fact, is already happening. In October 2008, British manufacturer Martin-Baker announced its intention to be the park’s first tenant. One of the world’s leading manufacturers of ejector seats, the company will manufacture at its new plant the devices used to propel the seat from the plane “in the blink of an eye,” explains Carlos Montague, president and CEO of Port Tobacco Consulting in La Plata. Montague’s company, a government contractor for the U.S. Navy handling information technology, weapons systems engineering and facilities engineering, has been instrumental in luring Martin-Baker, which is expected to initially employ 60 workers and eventually double that workforce. The company aims to have the plant operational by the end of 2010.
Montague says that aerospace and defense company ATK is also considering the park as the location for a new facility, and that several other defense-related contractors have expressed interest, though not yet publicly.
The park is a joint venture of La Plata-based developer Facchina and Corporate Office Properties Trust, which specializes in buying, developing, managing and leasing properties near government installations, particularly defense and data operations.
Fifty acres of the new park is owned by the county, which is providing water and sewer services to the site. Located on Maryland Route 210 and adjacent to Maryland Airport, the park is just 30 miles from Washington, D.C. and within 125 miles of nearly 30 federal defense, aviation and space operations.
“We like to say we’re 30 minutes outside of all the money in the world,” Montague quips.
The park eventually will feature up to 1.3 million square feet of office, research and manufacturing space. When complete within 15 years, the park is expected to create 1,500 jobs. The workforce will be ready, Robertson says. The University of Maryland already offers one of the nation’s few energetics engineering degrees, and the University of Southern Maryland is working with the Indian Head base to develop a two-year energetics technician program. “I greatly appreciate the forethought of Charles County’s economic development team that has been behind this project,” Hanft says. “The goal of developing a state-of-the-art business and technology complex supports a cooperative synergy with the military community at Indian Head that will ensure both the community and the base will thrive in the years to come.”
