Tech transformation aids development

Just three years ago, Richard Tworek founded a new software company, Qovia Inc., in Frederick, Md., on the northernmost part of the state’s Interstate 270 corridor.

Today, the developer of Internet telephony technology is flourishing, with 60 employees and serving Fortune 1000 clients.

Has it been hard getting skilled technology employees to drive to Frederick five days a week? Hardly.

“It’s a big benefit for us ” the reverse commute,” says Mr. Tworek, the company’s president and CEO. “One of the questions we addressed when we started this was: ‘Will we be in the middle of nowhere?’ But we’ve found that the opposite is now true. This is a bedroom community for Northern Virginia, Rockville and D.C.”

Qovia is definitely not alone along the I-270 corridor, where office parks, jobs and, now, affordable housing are rapidly emerging. A number of factors have contributed to the region’s development.

According to the Maryland Technology Development Corp., a public-private organization based in Columbia, Md., the state is one of the largest recipients of federal research-and-development dollars in the nation.

Companies, universities and federal research labs in the state receive about $10 billion annually in research funding.

Moreover, organizations such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have spawned a large number of start-up companies, which have ventured out on their own. Nationally known technology companies, including MedImmune, Celera and Human Genome Sciences, have offices near or along the I-270 corridor.

According to the Milken Institute’s state technology and science index, Maryland ranked fourth nationally in technology development.

“We’re going to continue to see developments on the I-270 corridor of large office buildings, jobs and homes based on the demand being created by companies in telecom, the life sciences and biological sciences,” says Edward Schiff, a real estate lawyer in the D.C. offices of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.

“There is a movement among the counties and townships there to embrace residential development,” Mr. Schiff says.

The growth has been persistent for the past three years there, although even 15 years ago, visionaries were predicting a coming boom, said Peg Scherbarth, the D.C.-area director of ZipRealty.

In addition to the creation of jobs in Maryland, other practical factors have influenced the interest of homeowners in the area.

“If you want to buy a home and upgrade, there are limits in D.C. or Northern Virginia or parts of Montgomery County,” Ms. Scherbarth says.

“That’s because this is one of the top areas in the country in terms of the job market and interest rates. That has driven real estate demand through the ceiling,” she says. “So people are going farther and farther away from the hub to find affordable homes.”

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