BREAKING NEWS — Northrop Grumman Bypasses Arlington

Northrop Grumman has bypassed Arlington and selected the Falls Church section of Fairfax County for the location of its new DC-area headquarters. The company will purchase a building in the Fairview Park office park, near the Beltway and Route 50, the company said in a press release.

The purchase caps a “comprehensive site selection process” that lasted about a month and a half longer than originally anticipated. When Northrop CEO Wes Bush and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced in April that the company had narrowed its headquarters search down to Northern Virginia, Bush said the process would take about a month.

Amid the media speculation about the headquarters location, two sites were consistently mentioned near the end: the Falls Church site and a building in Ballston. Buildings in Crystal City and Rosslyn were also said to be in the early running. In the end, however, Falls Church won out.

The fate of Northrop’s ritzy Rosslyn government affairs office is now in question. The company said cryptically that employees from the office will help “initiate operations” in the new building next summer. We’re awaiting further clarification from a Northrop representative.

The company’s full press release, after the jump.

LOS ANGELES – July 12, 2010 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced today that it has signed an agreement to purchase an existing building located at 2980 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church, Va. as the new location for its corporate office, completing a comprehensive site selection process.

Northrop Grumman expects to initiate operations in the new corporate office facility in the summer of 2011 with employees from the company’s Los Angeles and Arlington, Va. offices. The company currently employs approximately 40,000 people in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. region.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.