- The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Three locations in the D.C. suburbs have been identified as potential sites for the planned relocation of the FBI’s headquarters, including Greenbelt and Landover in Prince George’s County and Springfield in Fairfax County.

The General Services Administration on Tuesday released its short list of locations under consideration for a new FBI headquarters as the agency seeks to leave the outdated J. Edgar Hoover Building in the District.

The announcement confirms what was long expected: that the agency would leave the city, where its headquarters have been since its inception in 1908. The agency has occupied its current location on Pennsylvania Avenue since 1975.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s nonvoting congressional representative, said city officials had received “prior indications” that a site in the District would not be selected and that they are looking forward to redeveloping the prime 6.7-acre site between the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

“The District alone, among those competing, could not lose in the FBI headquarters selection process,” Mrs. Norton said.

The sites under consideration include two locations in Prince George’s County, one near the Greenbelt Metro Station and another at the site of the former Landover Mall.

A group of Maryland lawmakers that included the state’s U.S. Senate delegation, a handful of House members and County Executive Rushern L. Baker III issued a joint statement in which they said there is “no better fit for the FBI than Prince George’s County” and noted that about 40 percent of the agency’s employees at the current headquarters already live in Maryland.

The third location is in Fairfax County at the site of the GSA Franconia Warehouse Complex.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova said the project would help to spur redevelopment in the area and noted that “because it is federally owned, this site is a lower cost option for the FBI.”

“Virginia is unified behind this site and we feel it is the best of the three,” she said.

Private developers and local governments have expressed significant interest in the relocation deal, with jurisdictions around the region lobbying hard to get a piece of the project. The GSA received 38 initial responses from developers interested in exchanging the FBI’s old home for a new consolidated site.

The FBI is seeking a 50-acre campus, located within 2½ miles of Interstate 495, that can accommodate 2.1 million square feet of office space in order to build a new campus.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the GSA said the next steps toward the final selection of a site will include National Environmental Policy Act reviews of the sites. The review will include the opportunity for the public to comment on the selection. During that period, the GSA will begin seeking requests for proposals from developers.

• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.

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