The GSA submitted a report to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Monday — two weeks after its deadline — that represents a major reversal from its previous search for a new FBI HQ site.
The report recommends demolishing the J. Edgar Hoover Building and constructing a new FBI HQ building on the 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW site. It would temporarily relocate the thousands of FBI employees who work in the building during construction.
The proposal, first reported by the Washington Business Journal, calls for a 2.6M SF building on the site that would cost an estimated $3.3B. The GSA expects the new building to be completed in 2025 if the project is awarded by next year. The HQ would only house 8,300 FBI staff, compared to its current 11,000, and another 2,300 staff would be spread out to offices in Alabama, West Virginia and Idaho.
The report, obtained by Bisnow, also looks at potential alternatives to demolishing and rebuilding the Hoover Building. One alternative, a four-phase renovation of the Hoover Building, would cost an estimated $3.8B and would not be completed until 2035. Another scenario would have the government sell the site to a developer to construct a new facility and lease it back indefinitely. The fourth scenario would involve ground-leasing the site to a developer for 35 years, leasing the facility during that period and then retaining full ownership after the ground-lease expires. The two leasing scenarios could also have the FBI move in by 2025, though it says they would have a higher cost than the federal construction option.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jon Bannister over at Bis Now
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