Montgomery County celebrates ‘big win’ with Samsung Biologics’ arrival

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich says the arrival of Samsung Biologics to the Maryland county is a “big win” for the local economy.

At his weekly news briefing Tuesday, Elrich explained that Samsung is in the process of buying a site in Rockville that housed GSK’s Human Genome Sciences manufacturing campus. It will be the South Korean drugmaker’s first manufacturing facility in the United States.

“This is a big win for our local workforce,” Elrich said. “More than 500 skilled employees will remain on that campus and will continue to call Montgomery County home.”

Elrich added that Samsung indicated that it would want to “grow their manufacturing here, and we would anticipate as they grow their manufacturing, that we would benefit from that as well.”

Elrich cited the Viva White Oak mixed-use project that he said would bring up to 9,000 jobs to the eastern edge of Montgomery County.

“This is a new development on 280 acres that today are basically the remnants of old sand and gravel pits,” Elrich said.

Ken Hartman-Espada, assistant chief administrative officer for Montgomery County, added that the Viva White Oak site will include 5,000 housing units and called the plans for the site “transformative.”

Hartman-Espada also said that the county has been working with WMATA and Houston-based Hines on the North Bethesda Metro development.

“This development is going to be the anchor and economic attractor for the North Bethesda and White Flint area,” Hartman-Espada said.

“Biotech is not all that we do,” said Judy Costello, director of Economic Development Special Projects for Montgomery County. “We’re proud of last year’s wins.”

She cited Astra-Zeneca’s $2 billion investment that is projected to support 2,600 jobs, as well as the plans for new headquarters for X-energy, which will retain 260 jobs and add 525 new jobs over the next six years.

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