The federal government’s main civilian real estate arm had committed to spending more than $20.5 million in its search for a new consolidated FBI headquarters before scrapping the process earlier this year, funds that might be wasted depending on what the agency does next.
The General Services Administration, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, detailed obligated payments dating back to 2012 to companies ranging from architecture firm Gensler to real estate brokerage Savills Studley to Anchorage, Alaska-based Chenega Professional and Technical Services LLC. That doesn’t include the tab interested developers ran up to compete for the requirement, which would have consolidated the FBI’s headquarters staff from the agency’s J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown D.C. and several other leased facilities across the region to a new campus in the suburbs.
Putting those costs in perspective, $20.5 million is a drop in the bucket compared the project’s larger price tag, expected to come in at around $2.5 billion including the Hoover building’s potential exchange value.