Right now, it's a temporary park — a placeholder at the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and North Lynn Street. But when the soaring new building is constructed at Central Place, it will be known as the CEB Tower. This week, developer JBG landed a marquee tenant for the new building, which will be designed by international architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle. The tenant is one of the most profitable management services businesses in America, the Corporate Executive Board, which will be moving from its current headquarters on Lynn Street and adding 800 new jobs.
"A new global headquarters and investment of this magnitude are tremendous testaments to the confidence the company has in Arlington County and the commonwealth as it grows its presence internationally, and creates the workspace and technology for jobs of the 21st century," said Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a written statement.
The move from one Rosslyn address to another was announced Monday after the company conducted a multi-state search. In the end, executives decided to select a location that was a few feet away. State officials approved $9.5 million in grants to secure the deal, and a portion of those grants is tied to performance incentives. Arlington County is providing $4.5 million in infrastructure improvements.
“CEB is exactly the type of business Arlington needs as we move forward as a leader in the innovation economy,” said Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette. “Today’s announcement is a shining example of how the new initiatives we’ve implemented this year are increasing Arlington’s economic competitiveness and ensuring our place as a leading community for technology businesses of the future.”
THE COMPANY has its origins in 1979 when it was founded by David Bradley, a recent Swarthmore University grad hoping to make a name for himself in politics. It was originally known as the Research Council of Washington, an organization that could conduct research for companies no matter what the subject or industry. The first headquarters was in the Watergate building, where he set up an office in his mother's apartment. Although he had some initial success pursuing a broad scope of businesses — the European fountain pen market to jet-engine sales — Bradley eventually decided to begin specializing in particular areas by establishing a dedicated financial services research unit. So he renamed the company the Advisory Board Company in 1983, and within four years clients included every major North American retail bank and several large Europeans banks.
By this point, Bradley had given up on his interest in politics and became increasingly interested in journalism. His first acquisition was in 1997, when he purchased the National Journal. To finance more media acquisitions, he began separating the assets of the Advisory Board in an effort to package them as spinoff companies. The first spinoff was the Corporate Executive Board, which was created in 1997. In 2008, the CEB moved from Washington, D.C. to Rosslyn. CEB currently employs about 1,400 in Arlington, and expects to grow to about 2,200.
The move is projected to occur in 2018.
“This agreement would not have been possible without the exceptional partnership of the commonwealth and Arlington County,” said CEB Chairman and CEO Tom Monahan. “The governor’s office and our local government representatives clearly demonstrated why Virginia is a great state for business. Under their leadership, we are confident in Arlington’s future as a business hub and thrilled to be a landmark business in — and significant economic contributor to — the Rosslyn community."
