A group of six suburban Maryland counties have partnered to cooperate on economic development efforts, mirroring a similar effort launched in Northern Virginia last year.
Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard, Frederick, Anne Arundel and Charles counties have all signed a new joint statement of collaboration, pledging to work together to lure businesses in a bid to ease competition among the localities. Economic development officials from each jurisdiction formalized the new agreement Monday, though discussions first started back in October
Move comes after six months of talks
Those talks began in earnest shortly after 10 localities formed the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance in September, committing to work more closely together and mimic the success Arlington and Alexandria had when they partnered to land Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
This new Maryland partnership creates a similarly large alliance to the north. With the coronavirus outbreak wreaking havoc on the economy, this new spirit of cooperation suddenly seems more essential than ever, officials said.
“This group came together when things were normal, but there’s no question COVID-19 has given it a greater energy,” said David Iannucci, president and CEO of the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corp., who helped organize the effort. “But we are looking forward to a time when this will all be back to normal and we can do classic economic development again.”