Meridiam moved its national HQ to downtown DC

Keep an eye out for moving trucks, downtown folks: A new corporate resident has brought its headquarters to DC.

Meridiam Infrastructure North America, a global infrastructure manager, has relocated its Americas headquarters from New York City to downtown DC. The company is a subsidiary of Meridiam, based in Paris, France, and brought this HQ to DC through the district’s Vitality Fund. According to a press release, the new 20,000-square-foot space is located at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and Meridiam expects to bring 60 new jobs to the area.

Meridiam develops, finances and manages large-scale infrastructure projects like the Purple Line and parts of I-66. Meridiam is the third awardee of DC’s $10 million Vitality Fund, an incentive program for companies with plans to relocate, expand or maintain a location in DC.

Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) Nina Albert told Technical.ly that Meridiam received a $210,000 grant. Throughout Meridiam’s 10-year lease, DMPED estimates the company will bring $24 million to DC through various revenue streams.

“We are a global city,” Albert said. “We’re also home to the federal government and that continues to attract business.”

To qualify, companies need to have at least 25 employees, lease or own at least 7,000 square feet for at least five years, work in a target industry, provide workforce development programs or local contracting commitments, and have employees on-site for at least 50% of the time.

Meridiam’s Americas CEO Nicolas Rubio said that the company’s public sector work made DC an ideal home for the company.

“We partner with the public sector over the long term on sustainable infrastructure projects that seek to improve people’s daily lives,” Rubio said in an announcement. “As a global hub for global decision-makers, engineering services, development banks and sustainability leaders, DC is the natural place for Meridiam to put down roots and continue to grow.”

For Albert, DC was an attractive place for Meridiam thanks to the local expertise in public-private partnerships. At the same time, she noted the area’s strength in high-quality talent, which is an asset for companies looking to grow.

“That’s the sweet spot in the talent that a city offers, when there’s a good synergy in the types of business that they conduct and the people that they get access to, from a business to business perspective, is in place, which is the case with Meridiam,” Albert said. “We’re able to really value them as a partner and offer them an incentive to be here.”

The Vitality Fund is not officially a part of the Downtown Action Plan or Comeback Plan, which aim to revitalize downtown DC and bring 15,000 residents to the area by 2028. Two other companies, Virtru and Quadrant Strategies, were also Vitality Fund recipients, leasing 33,000 square feet in total. Those projects are expected to generate $1.8 million in tax revenue for DC.

“This is all part of the comeback of Downtown DC. Washington, DC continues to attract global companies like Meridiam that want to be in the nation’s capital and have access to world-class talent,” Mayor Bowser said in a statement. “There are many reasons top employers want to be in DC — our workforce and proximity to changemakers, our arts and culture scene, our beautiful parks and world-class transit system — and tools like the Vitality Fund help make the decision even easier for businesses.”

This win with Meridiam, Albert hopes, will continue to attract businesses to the area as employees head back to the office and companies look for ways to expand.

“We’ll definitely be leveraging the decision that this global company has made and make sure that other people are aware of what we have to offer, both in terms of talent, as well as a business ecosystem,” Albert said.