FBI HQ Delayed Due to Funding Dispute
The proposed new FBI HQ has been delayed due to disagreement over how to pay for the proposed 2.1M SF building. The dispute is holding up the second request for site-specific proposals.
Congress has mandated that all of the FBI’s employees be moved to one location. They are currently scattered across the region in 21 leased facilities. Elimination of those leases could save up to $50M per year. The next request for proposals does not have to include plans to pay for the building, but no award can be made until funding is secured.
The current HQ, the 41-year-old J. Edgar Hoover building, houses only 52% of the HQ’s staff. The worth of the Hoover building's land, more than six acres along Pennsylvania Avenue, likely doesn't balance out the cost a developer has to pay to build the next facility, in either Prince George's County or Springfield, VA. [NYT]