Jan 27

Jan 27 Actively Pursuing Bigger, Better Business

By Angela Alsobrooks

This is an excerpt from the January 2020 Community Connections Newsletter

From 2013 to 2018, we added 21,236 jobs in our County, growing by 7.1%. That growth secures our County’s spot as the top job creator for the entire State of Maryland. I am Prince George’s Proud to say that these numbers confirm what we have been saying, which is that we are the economic engine for our State.

As the Washington Post article states, our job growth is due in part to honest and effective political leadership in our County over the past several years. In addition, our County has aggressively courted businesses by making key investments over several budget cycles. We are not just waiting for businesses to come, but instead going out and beating the bushes to tell the story of Prince George’s. These factors, plus the strong working relationship that we have with our colleagues on the County Council, have contributed to a very business-friendly environment in our County.

As we maintain the spot as the top job creator for the State of Maryland, we will not rest on our laurels. Over the next several years, we plan to continue making investments to incentivize businesses to locate to Prince George’s County. Some of our top priorities include high-quality dining and amenities, technology companies, and even federal government facilities that are looking to relocate.

We also plan to invest in creating what we call the Downtowns of Prince George’s. These are areas where we will focus on mixed-use, transit-oriented development to continue attracting new businesses and growing our commercial tax base. In the past year alone, we have seen several successes with these projects and the investments we have already made.

For example, in the area around the New Carrollton metro, Kaiser Permanente opened its new regional headquarters last year, and we learned that WMATA plans to move its regional headquarters there as well. Construction will soon begin on the Carillon Project in Largo, which will revitalize the former Boulevard at Capital Centre.

Finally, we broke ground on the Hampton Park Project, which will replace the former Hampton Park Mall in Capitol Heights. We’ve already secured several commitments from businesses to open in this location when construction is done, including the award-winning Ivy City Smokehouse restaurant and a Market Fresh Gourmet grocery store.

Those are just a few of the accomplishments we had in 2019 in terms of attracting new businesses and job creation. You have my commitment that my administration will continue telling our story, making critical investments and attracting new businesses to create even more jobs over the next several years.

The best is truly yet to come for Prince George’s, and I know that by working together, we’ll have an even better story to tell in the coming months.