A construction site in Shanghai. (Photo by Rob Armstrong)
Following on his embrace of the District’s high-tech industry in last night’s State of the District address, Mayor Vince Gray today moved his biweekly press conference to the office of a Florida Avenue startup firm.
Speaking at GeekEasy, a company that offers shared office space to nascent technology companies, Gray repeated his cheerleading of District-based companies like LivingSocial, the deal-of-the-day giant, and Fortify.vc, a venture capital firm.
In his speech last night and again today, Gray spoke at length about a burgeoning technology sector he believes will play a key role in growing the District’s private-sector business community as the federal government is downsized in coming years. Thought the District produced LivingSocial, which rivals Groupon in the online discount business, its 4,900 employees are spread across the globe. Gray said he would like to continue attracting companies like Fortify.vc, which was founded in Sterling, Va., but moved to a new office at 16th and K streets NW last December. Fortify, according to its website, has been an incubator for several digital companies that work in information sharing and communications security.
Gray said he wants to see more “clusters of tech companies” sprout up across the city as the District “adapts to an economy that is mercurial.” Besides the new hotshots, he also elaborated on attracting more established firms to the area, specifically the Microsoft outpost that is slated to be built at the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital campus, though Gray told reporters the old hospital needs several infrastructure upgrades before the software titan moves in. Gray said he’ll be asking for about $50 million in the District’s next capital budget be designated to fix roads, sewers and other facilities around the complex.
Another component of the State of the District address was a new trade agenda, “Export D.C.,” a program being funded by the federal Small Business Administration and the Commerce Department. At his press conference, Gray sought to tie the District’s tech sector to this new initiative, which is targeting trade relationships with South Africa, Brazil and China. Gray said China’s continuous building boom was ripe for the District’s trade policy.
“We’ll be exporting knowledge,” Gray said about what D.C.’s high-tech industry has to offer the world’s second-largest economy. Firms in the District, he said, are well-suited to help Chinese construction projects come into compliance with modern environmental standards and sustainability practices.
