County Government Leaving Leesburg? Ashburn Locati

County Government Leaving Leesburg? Ashburn Location Eyed
Dusty Smith and Molly Novotny

Jan 06, 2006 -- The county government center offices may be relocated from the Town of Leesburg to the Moorefield Station area under a plan that Edgemoor Real Estate Services, an affiliate of Clark Construction, has discussed with at least three county supervisors.

In what would be a public-private partnership, the developers have suggested a centralized building that could accommodate the county’s future growth needs.

“It’s still conceptual in my mind,” said Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge). He said had met twice with the group over the past six to eight weeks. “They seem to be moving toward a proposal.”

Supervisor Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac), who has also been meeting with the developers, stressed that the idea was still very preliminary.

“They haven’t formally filed anything,” Tulloch said.

When the county government last worked to consolidate its office space in 1989, a developer competition was held. The final selection was narrowed to three choices—Ashburn Village, Lansdowne and the Stratford property near Leesburg Airport—before town and county leaders reached agreement on a deal to keep the government offices—and hundreds of employees—in downtown Leesburg. Those talks resulted in the construction of the current County Government Center, which opened in 1996. That building was designed for the addition of an expansion wing, but supervisors have raised concerns that the project would overwhelm the downtown area and exacerbate the parking problem.

Loudoun County Public Schools closed its downtown administrative offices and moved to Ashburn last year.

Neal Fleming, a principal with Edgemoor, said his team began exploring the idea to consolidate the county government offices, many of which are scattered around the county in leased spaces, eight months ago.

“We started to do a study and talk to people about what the needs of the growing government center were,” Fleming said. “We’re not real estate developers.” Instead, he said Edgemoor looks for opportunities in which they do “turn-key operations,” meaning they build custom projects for the intended user.

For years, the county has recognized its need for additional office space, stressing the economic benefits of owning that space.

“Solving the county space problem is a discussion that has to be had,” Tulloch said, when asked about the new proposal.

Burton agreed. “I have told [the board] publicly from the dais they’re going to have to deal with the situation before they leave office.”

Leesburg District Supervisor Jim Clem’s aide, Bridget Bangert, who heard about the proposal Thursday, said the building could be a maximum size of 600,000 square feet, but she was quick to add, “in no shape or form were they suggesting that’s how big it would be.”

Fleming said the discussions are ongoing and the plans are still preliminary, adding that if the supervisors supported the Moorefield Station location, the complex could initially occupy 12 to 15 acres.

“When we talked to the government center and talked about different areas that were possible for expansion, we identified the Moorefield Station as one that looked like that might be a good location because of the transportation needs that it met and because it would have space for future expansion,” he said. If Metro extends into Loudoun, the last stop would be at Moorefield Station.

Burton, who represents the western part of the county, said, “I think [Edgemoor] may come forward with an interesting proposal some of the eastern supervisors will have difficulty turning down.”

Clem, a former mayor of Leesburg, said he first learned about the proposal last month and only met with the developers yesterday.

“I don’t think the Leesburg Town Council knows anything more than I know,” Clem said.

While Edgemoor said it has been working on the plan for eight months, Tulloch and Burton said they have only been aware of it for about two months.

“It’s my understanding that [Leesburg Town Manager] John Wells knows about this. That’s what I was told by [County Administrator Kirby] Bowers,” Burton said.

Wells was out sick Friday and could not be reached for comment. Town Attorney Barbara Beach said she discussed the “rumor” with him for the first time yesterday.

“Anybody associated with the town who heard about it so far, to my knowledge, heard about it as I had, that there’s a big rumor going around,” Beach said Friday.

Leesburg Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd did not return phone calls.

With respect to Leesburg, Burton said, “I have been assured by the county administrator that there are other proposals out there that call for a site or two inside the Town of Leesburg.”

Tulloch confirmed that there were two other proposals.

An unsolicited proposal, such as the one Edgemoor might propose, requires the government to consider similar proposals from other entities for at least 45 days following the initial submittal.

It is this short response time for other competing proposals to be submitted, that Burton said prompted him to tell Clem in mid-December “he better start getting busy” if he wants to find a location closer to Leesburg.

Clem said any relocation of offices outside the town “would have a major impact” on Leesburg.

The administrative offices as well as the departments of planning; building permits and zoning; and mapping departments and the supervisors’ offices and meeting space, are located in the county building.

These “key offices,” Clem said attract engineers, architects and attorneys because it’s “cost-effective for them to be in town so they don’t have to travel all over the place trying to put their data together.”

He was concerned about the economic impacts a relocation might cause.

“I’ll be there to fight for the town, don’t worry,” he said.

Burton did not address economic concerns, but assured that, “The building that we’re in will not go empty. There are plenty of uses for the current building.” He suggested the sheriff’s office and the court office expansion as possibilities.

Instead of relocating the building to the eastern part of the county, Clem and Burton said they favored a new complex at county-owned Shellhorn property just south of Leesburg.

“That’s a large tract of land,” Clem said about the 460-acre site that is already earmarked for a public safety uses, a park and ride lot, a town water tower and a county park.

“I don’t think the park would be affected,” he added. “It’s a location that I would want explored.”