Submarkets Go to New Lengths (and Locales) to Compete

FAIRFAX, VA-Fairfax County’s Economic Development Authority is opening a new office in Boston – or to be more precise, it has picked Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications to run its new marketing efforts in the area. What will it be marketing? Fairfax, of course, and its charms as a business location.

This is the second office in the US the EDA has opened, and given its criteria (more on that in a moment) it probably will be a while before another is opened, according to Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the EDA. Still, its presence in Boston is indicative of a trend that is becoming more and more apparent in the DC area – highly competitive submarkets that are aggressively wooing businesses to their jurisdictions. To be sure such competition has been the hallmark of states and regions and countries. What is new is how hyper local it is becoming.