Northrop plans Cummings Park office complex
Multimillion-dollar facility to house now-scattered staff
Monday, May 23, 2005
Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to build a multimillion-dollar office complex in Cummings Research Park that will consolidate its Huntsville operations and secure its presence here for the next decade, company officials say.
Northrop Grumman plans to break ground on the first 250,000-square-foot building June 27. The company plans a five-building complex for its 1,200 local employees who are now scattered among 20 sites around town. The site is next to the Adtran complex near the entrance to Cummings Research Park West.
Colonial Properties Trust will buy the land from the city of Huntsville, develop and build the facilities, and lease them to Northrop Grumman for the next 10 years, said Northrop Grumman Vice President Daniel L. Montgomery.
"We think this says something about our commitment to Huntsville," Montgomery said Friday. "This is a 10-year lease we are signing."
The $80 million complex, which will take three to five years to complete, Montgomery said, "really postures us to take advantage of work that might be coming Huntsville's way related to either NASA's new programs or work that could come out of" the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process. Our real goal is to consolidate for efficiency."
Most current operations will be consolidated in the new complex, Montgomery said, which will include offices, laboratories, and research and development centers.
"Northrop Grumman's considerable growth the past few years has made us one of Huntsville's largest employers," Montgomery said. "We project even more growth in the years ahead, with Huntsville supporting or managing several major programs and new contract wins."
Among those programs is Kinetic Energy Interceptors, a mobile, land-based missile-defense system that, when deployed, will be able to destroy an enemy missile just after liftoff and during the ascent phase of its flight. Work on the Army's tank-killing Hellfire missile is performed here, and Northrop wants to expand work performed here for NASA.
The team managing the KEI battle-management portion of the program is in Huntsville. Huntsville-based employees also support other missile-defense programs, including providing the fire-control and communications subsystem for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
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