Marriott developer expands plan for new $600M headquarters

Dive Brief:

The developers of Marriott's new Bethesda, MD, headquarters have filed plans with the Montgomery County Planning Board that will expand the hotel giant's downtown presence to 1 million square feet, according to the Washington Business Journal.
At 825,000 square feet, the office building portion of the project will be 125,000 square feet more than originally designed and will include 225,000 square feet of commercial space in addition to a 230-room, 12-story Marriott hotel.
Montgomery County is giving Marriott $22 million in incentives for the $600 million investment and an agreement to maintain 3,500 jobs. Construction is expected to begin in a year.

Dive Insight:

Marriott finalized the deal with Boston Properties and The Bernstein Companies to develop the Gensler-designed office complex in July after the county rezoned the area to allow for taller buildings. Marriott had originally considered moving outside of Bethesda but announced last October that it would stay in the city and instead relocate downtown.

No doubt the incentive package offered up by Montgomery County influenced Marriot's decision to stay put. Many state and local governments are willing to provide tax breaks and other benefits to attract and retain job-producing manufacturers and other companies.

In the case of Waukee, IA, it's a way to pay for a growing population.

Apple is building a $1.3 billion data center in the central Iowa city, near Des Moines. In exchange, the computing giant will get $208 million in state and local tax breaks. Apple will also donate $100 million to a local economic development fund. The city has been struggling to accommodate the rising number of new residents and is hoping that Apple will be the first of many larger companies to help fuel its expansion and the necessary infrastructure to support it.

In perhaps the biggest proposed incentives-for-development deal of late, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn announced in July that it will invest $10 billion in a flat-panel display factory in Wisconsin. The state has offered a controversial $3 billion tax break, according to The Washington Post, that could cost $230,700 per worker for each of the 13,000 jobs Foxconn has promised. The Wisconsin State Legislature's budget committee is expected to further discuss the proposal this week.