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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Systems Planning & Analysis has opened a classified analytics lab at its Alexandria headquarters, part of the expansion the defense contractor announced last September.
The Advanced Analytics Lab occupies 14,400 square feet at 2001 N. Beauregard St. and opened in the first quarter of this year, company spokeswoman Genesis Eldredge said. The space is air-gapped and cleared to the SECRET level.
It holds 78 workstations with classified and unclassified connectivity, about 40 of them available for client use, along with shared analysis rooms, restricted areas and conference space, Eldredge said. The area was traditional office space before the renovation, and the analytical work now done there had been spread across separate rooms in the building.
The lab is not staffed by a fixed group, Eldredge said. It functions as a shared facility for analysts across the company working in mission engineering, operations analysis, strategic advisory and data science.
"Our expansion was an investment in more than our physical footprint," CEO Rich Sawchak said in a statement. "The Advanced Analytics Lab puts that commitment into action by bringing our people and technology together."
SPA said in its announcement that teams use the lab for defense and national security work, including assessments involving cyber warfare and layered homeland defense, and that the space supports the company's own analytic software alongside industry and government tools.
Last year's commitments
SPA announced its expansion Sept. 11, 2025, at a ceremony at the headquarters attended by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Mayor Alyia Gaskins, and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay. The company said it would invest $46.9 million across Northern Virginia and create 1,200 jobs over five years, and that it had purchased the 239,000-square-foot building for renovation.
The governor's office put the job figures at 494 in Alexandria and 714 in Fairfax County. SPA's own announcement described them as 500 and more than 700.
The company received a $9.2 million grant from the Commonwealth's Development Opportunity Fund and the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant, according to the governor's office. Alexandria agreed to provide matching grants from the Alexandria Investment Fund for jobs created — the first time the city proposed using AIF to incentivize job creation, according to the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership — and planned infrastructure work near the headquarters, including bus stops, walkways and curb extensions. The City Council approved the local portion Sept. 30.
Asked how many of the Alexandria jobs have been filled and how many people the company employs in the city, Eldredge said SPA is "on target to meet our hiring goals in Alexandria" and does not publicly disclose employee numbers for individual offices.
SPA says it employs more than 3,000 people worldwide. In September 2025, it put the figure at nearly 3,000, with about 1,500 in the greater Washington area. In October, it acquired Group W, a Vienna-based defense analytics firm, for terms that were not disclosed.
Renovation of the headquarters is continuing, Eldredge said. She did not give a completion date.
SPA has operated in Alexandria since its founding in 1972 and works with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy, among other clients. It is a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
