NSA, Fort Meade Primed for Growth, But Just How Much?

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Though the official announcements are apparently forthcoming, there have been two badly-kept secrets swirling around Fort Meade in recent months - that have everything to do, oddly enough, with the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA).

In addition to the recent rumblings that NSA plans to add 11,000 jobs and 5.8 million square feet of workspace during the next two decades (in three phases), the agency also has been recommended to house the Department of Defense's new U.S. Cyber Command.

The official announcement about the NSA expansion is said to be coming in early September; confirmation of the news about the U.S. Cyber Command is expected afterward, also in early fall.
When combined with other long-discussed expansions on and surrounding Fort Meade, including the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) effort, the ongoing expansion of nearby National Business Park (NBP) in Annapolis Junction and the $400 million, 1.7 million-square-foot office park that could rise via Enhanced Use Lease financing from The Trammell Crow Co. across Route 175 from the post, the bottom line in and around the post is further expansion.

"This whole mix is like an elixir," said Bob Leib, who is the special assistant to the county executive for BRAC and Education for Anne Arundel County, as well as chairman of the Fort Meade Regional Growth Management Committee. "It's the recipe for growth. The only question concerns exactly how all of these ingredients will come together."

Expansion Mode
When asked for comment about its expansion, which is said to include 1.8 million square feet for up to 6,500 workers in the "near term" according to a notice in the July 2 Federal Register, a contact made to the NSA public affairs office resulted in a predictably cryptic and unsigned response:

"The National Security Agency, with the release of the Notice of Intent (NOI) and the subsequent Environmental Impact Study scoping meeting held [this summer], is in the initial planning stages for the Site M development. The totality of our current information was articulated in both the NOI and the scoping meeting, all of which are in sync with NSA and Fort Meade's Master Plans.

"The figures detailed in the various phases of development contained in the NOI are projected estimates of utilization; however, since the planning is in its earliest stages these are not finalized details."

The response from The Pentagon concerning the U.S. Cyber Command was somewhat more direct, but also short on details.

Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, spokesperson for the Department of Defense, said that "specifics of the details for the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command have not been worked out yet. Right now, the implementation plan is being assembled."

Butterbaugh said that department, which would fall under the auspices of the U.S. Strategic Command and would be set up to defend military networks against computer attacks and develop offensive cyber weapons, is "anticipating, as things move forward, that we will have more information concerning the issues, such as how many new jobs will be coming to the post and when that will happen."

He added that the U.S. Strategic Command, which the U.S. Cyber Command will report to, is developing the implementation plan. "Right now we just don't have those details and don't know exactly when that will be, though we are anticipating hearing more, hopefully by early fall." Full operational capability is slated to be in place by fall 2010.

A Possible Caveat
Discussion concerning the 11,000 new jobs that are allegedly coming to NSA has been a bit tempered by the lack of information, Leib said.

"We don't know just how many are existing positions that are just being reshuffled inside the Fort Meade campus, or at Linthicum or Annapolis Junction," he said, "or they could be moved here from other cities.

"Our NSA partners are not talking about that yet," said Leib, "so you have to view that figure with caution as to how much real growth that announcement represents. However, there is no doubt that it represents growth. We just don't know how much yet.

"The big picture is clear," he said. "NSA is obviously committed to growing. We know that now."
As for the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command at NSA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were tasked two months ago by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to submit a plan to implement that recommendation; upon its completion, the secretary was to submit the plan to President Barack Obama for his approval in early September to establish the new agency at Fort Meade.

To underscore the anticipation in the defense contracting community, Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) broke ground for its latest building at NBP, a $36 million, five-story project, at the end of July. During his remarks at the event, COPT President and CEO Rand Griffin said that the real estate investment trust is also ready to embark on the construction of Phase III at the office park.

"The goal at NBP during the next 15 to 20 years is to grow to handle the capacity of 25,000 jobs," Leib said, noting that about 8,000 workers are employed at NBP today.

When the The Trammell Crow Co.'s EUL deal is also considered in the mix, the number of employees coming to Fort Meade gets even more impressive. "The U.S. Army is hoping to add 10,000 more jobs there as well," Lieb noted.

Too Much, Too Soon?
While the interest in and plans for Fort Meade sound impressive, there are also serious issues concerning road development and infrastructure around the post, and the recession has done nothing but cripple the process during a state budget crisis.

Prospects for improvement in the near term don't look very encouraging, but Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO with Sage Policy Group in Baltimore, said, "We can handle it all - eventually."
But when? "We're in an environment with excruciatingly scarce resources," said Basu. "As a result, it will be difficult to do everything the community wants to do to accommodate the expansion of federal activities at Fort Meade and a host of other installation.

"But we will get there," he said. "The solution will be multi-faceted and implicates the need to additional infrastructure investment, better housing policies and excellent human capital formation. If any region in the country can handle the challenge, it's the resource-intensive Baltimore-Washington Corridor."

More in the Mix
To many observers, the growth at NSA and in and around Fort Meade "is just further evidence of the federal government's commitment to the post and the west county community," said Claire Louder, president and CEO with the West Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce.

"It's also further impetus for the area to recover quickly from the recession," Louder said, "and offers an opportunity for local developers to provide space for the many support contractors who will be coming to this area in support of NSA and the other agencies that are relocating to Fort Meade due to BRAC."

Leib agreed. "We thought we had the job aspect of BRAC 2005 all figured out," he said, "but now there are more ingredients in the mix. It'll be awhile before the picture becomes clear.
"But what you can say as of now," he said, "is that Fort Meade will become the center of cyber security and information technology excellence in the world today."