DALLAS -- Private investors interested in building a new $2.3 billion FBI headquarters outside the District of Columbia in exchange for J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington have until June to submit proposals to the General Services Administration.
The public-private partnership arrangement would swap the current FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is valued at approximately $500 million, and provide up to $1.8 billion of additional federal funding for a new, more-secure complex that can accommodate the 14 FBI offices and 11,000 employees in the Washington region.
The GSA asked for proposals last week from a short-list of four development groups that are interested in the project. The potential investors, who the GSA declined to identify, have until June 22 to provide their plans for a new headquarters complex providing 2.1 million square feet of space.
President Obama's proposed fiscal 2017 budget set for release on Tuesday is expected to include $1.4 billion for the project. Congress allocated $390 million for the new FBI headquarters in the fiscal 2016 omnibus budget bill.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who headed the effort to include funding for the FBI headquarters in the 2016 budget, said the request for proposals was a much-needed sign of progress for a project first outlined in late 2012.
"I've fought tooth and nail for the men and women of the FBI, working to secure a $390 million significant down-payment in the fiscal 2016 funding bill," she said. "Now that the President has requested full funding for the new headquarters in his fiscal 2017 budget request, I'll work my earrings off to put the funds in the federal checkbook." Milkulski, 79, has announced she won't run for reelection in November and will instead retire.
The appropriations plus the value received for the Hoover Building will be enough to accomplish the headquarters swap, said GSA project manager Bill Dowd.
"The Administration remains committed to acquiring a consolidated new headquarters facility for the FBI, a member of the intelligence community," Dowd said. "The consolidated headquarters facility will allow the FBI to perform its critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement missions in a new modern and secure facility."
A replacement for the Hoover Building is long overdue, said Rich Haley, FBI assistant director for finance and facilities.
"Today many of our national security missions, the classification issues, really become cumbersome in this space in addition to its security concerns and some of its infrastructure and maintenance issues," Haley said last week in a conference call with reporters.
It would cost $850 million to $1.1 billion to renovate and update the Hoover Building, the GSA said, but it would still be able to accommodate only 52% of the headquarters staff. Consolidating the Washington-area FBI offices would reduce rents by $50 million a year.
Scott Nathan, associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, said in the press call that the new consolidated campus would meet the FBI's needs for at least the next 50 years.
Three sites are being considered for the new facility, two in Maryland and one in Virginia. The selected partner would not obtain the 6.7-acre Hoover Building site in downtown Washington until the new complex is completed and occupied, which is expected in 2023.
The developers must specify their valuation of the Hoover site and how much it would cost to build the new headquarters. They can bid on any or all of the three selected sites.
