Homebuilder moves mid-Atlantic HQ, 95 jobs from Virginia to Annapolis
Baltimore Business Journal | Melody Simmons
A large residential home builder has moved its mid-Atlantic headquarters and 95 employees to Anne Arundel County from Northern Virginia.
D. R. Horton, Inc. just signed a deal to lease 14,600 square feet of office space at 181 Harry S. Truman Parkway in the Annapolis Corporate Park. The company’s new offices are in a two-story Class A office building near Riva Road and Harry S. Truman Parkway.
D.R. Horton is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and builds home sites in 26 states under brands that include Express Homes and Emerald Homes. The residential prices start at $100,000 and peak at $1 million.
The move to suburban Baltimore will help the mid-Atlantic office expand its operations, company officials said Thursday, adding that the new location off Interstate 97 and Route 50 was key to the relocation for its existing workforce.
“Over the past three years, our homebuilding activity in this region has shifted to a greater prevalence in the Maryland suburbs,” said Kevin McDonald, capital division CFO at D.R. Horton, in a statement. He added:
“From a logistical and efficiency perspective, we made the decision to relocate our complete operations, encompassing administration, sales, marketing, purchasing and construction to an area within close proximity to our active communities throughout the metropolitan D.C. area. We consider Annapolis Corporate Park a compact, attractive development that provides the strategic location that will enable our operations to spend less time driving and more time on-site or with our customers.”
The office park is evolving and by 2019 will have close to 250,000 square feet of Class A office space. The developer is St. John Properties.
“D.R. Horton is among the most recognized brands in the residential homebuilding industry and, by attracting this high-profile company to Annapolis Corporate Park, demonstrates that the state of Maryland is indeed ‘open for business,’ ” said Richard Williamson, senior vice president at St. John.
He added that the company is poised to expand further in its new location.
“Adding nearly 100 highly skilled jobs to the Anne Arundel County region will result in a significant boost to the local economy that will positively impact a wide array of area businesses, retail shops and restaurants,” Williamson said. “The company has demonstrated consistent growth and we also expect new jobs to be created from this requirement.”
