Will Old Post Office Deal Accelerate Hoover Building's Demise and FTC's Move From Apex?

The General Services Administration's controversial nod to billionaire Donald Trump's bid for underutilized Old Post Office has refocused attention on the eastern end of Pennsylvania Ave. where several key government buildings could be in play.

Top of the list is the J. Edgar Hoover Building between Ninth and Tenth Street.

In November 2011, the Government Accountability Office released a report detailing what to do with the tired and unpopular J. Edgar Hoover FBI building on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Hoover Building, a Brutalist piece of concrete completed in 1974, has few current fans, even among the District's vocal preservationist crowd.

"Nobody will shed a tear when it goes," said Steve Calcott of the District's Historic Preservation Review Board. It's also much maligned as a "block-killer" for Penn Quarter as security considerations nixed any plans for street level retail. "We're just waiting for the day when the bulldozers arrive," said Karyn LeBlanc of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District.

The structure is equally unloved by the G-men as well, apparently. According to the GAO report, leaks, lack of windows, and poor access make the Hoover Building despised by its inhabitants, many of whom are now farmed out to other buildings in the D.C. area post-9/11 for security reasons.

The FBI desperately needs to centralize those agents to streamline operations and react more swiftly to threats. That's compounded by the fact that since 9/11, the number of FBI personnel working in and around Washington has nearly doubled, from 9,600 in 2001 to more than 17,600 in 2010. Given too that the FBI building and its agents are a prime terrorist target, the GAO's report also references key security weaknesses in the building (the specifics of which are classified in this report) that make it a prime candidate for replacement outside of the aesthetics.

The GAO's recommendations should cheer anybody eagerly awaiting a wrecking ball for the old structure. The government watchdog agency noted that at 2007 prices, remodeling the existing Hoover Building to come into compliance with EnergyStar and LEED certification would top $1.9 billion and take nearly a decade and half of work to complete.

Conversely, demolishing the unloved building and replacing it with another at the same site would cost a relative pittance, just $850 million, completed over nine years. Meanwhile, building the FBI a new headquarters somewhere else in the Washington metro area would cost about $1.2 billion and take seven years.

The rapid appreciation of real estate prices on Pennsylvania Avenue could make selling the land to a private developer an incentive for the GSA to find a new home for the FBI. The land that was $41 a square foot in 1963, when the GSA purchased 233,000 s.f. to build the FBI building, is now worth more than one hundred times that, says Gerry Widdicombe, director of economic development at the Downtown DC BID.

That would mean a windfall for the GSA of $500 million to $800 million, (minus $20 million or so for demolition) -- half the cost of building a new FBI building on a new site, Widdicome said.

It would also create a prime spot for a developer to bring more retail, given that Donald Trump plans a luxury hotel and restaurant across the street. "You knock down the FBI building, you can have a serious conversation with a department store like Harrods, or Bloomingdales, or Selfridges, since you would have the necessary volume," he said. "There's no doubt that the Trump deal for the Old Post Office will move the conversation about the FBI building forward."

While a suburban campus location for the FBI might appear the ideal choice, if only to free up the

real estate beneath the building, Britain's FBI equivalent, MI5 has stayed in Central London as the agency has grown, moving into a rehabbed government building, Thames House (right) in 1994.

Towards the same end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Art Deco Apex building, built in 1938 and currently occupied by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also being sought after as an expansion for the National Gallery of Art. Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican who heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and oversees the GSA's plan of disposing federal buildings, has made it clear he wants the FTC out of the Apex Building and the National Gallery of Art in. "One way or another we are going to get that building," he told GSA head Robert Peck in a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

Despite criticism of the Donald Trump deal for the Old Post Office Pavilion, the GSA has had recent success in transforming dormant federal

properties into vibrant spaces. In 2002, the GSA partnered with San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels to open the Hotel Monaco in Penn Quarter in the former Tariff Building which had stood empty since 1987. The opening of the hotel was soon followed by the Spy Museum and Zola restaurant in the 800 block of F Street.

Widdicome said that demolishing the block-killing Hoover Building, as well as re-purposing the Federal Trade Commission building as a museum, together with the new 250-room Trump Hotel at the site of the Old Post Office Building would go a long way towards improving the Eastern end of Pennsylvania Avenue, which columnist Russell Baker called "a marble graveyard" after dark.

Next up, says Widdicome, will be repurposing the underused Pershing Park and Freedom Plaza, as well as relighting Pennsylvania Avenue to make it more amenable to pedestrians. "Things are finally falling into place for Pennsylvania Avenue," he said.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

It's the Donald! Trump Wins Old Post Office Bid

Donald Trump may never have an inaugural walk down Pennsylvania Avenue as President, but that doesn't mean the billionaire real estate mogul won't get a plush front row seat. The General Services Administration said today it selected the Trump Organization in a $200 million deal to redevelop the underutilized Old Post Office

In a deal was first reported by the Washington City Paper, the Trump Organization will convert part of the Old Post Office at 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue into a 250-room luxury hotel with restaurants and a spa. The GSA said that the Trump-led redevelopment of the aging building, which was completed in 1899, could commence in in 2014 with completion in 2016.

"The Trump Organization plan will preserve the historic nature of the building and improve the vitality of Pennsylvania Avenue, Robert Peck, GSA's Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service said in a statement on GSA's Web site. "This redevelopment represents good business sense on behalf of the American taxpayer, the federal government and the District of Columbia."

Current tenants of the Old Post Office include the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities, who will be moved prior to reconstruction once negotiations over the plans by GSA and Trump conclude.

Washington real estate development news

LCOR Making Progress at North Bethesda Center

The last beam has been placed on the 14-story, $131 million office building that will accommodate 1,300 General Services Administration employees who work for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The new home of NRC is one of at least eight buildings planned for LCOR's 32-acre development North Bethesda Center, named for its location.

In July of 2010, construction began on the NRC building, which will be ready for initial occupancy in May of 2012, and finished for good in September. The NCR building was designed by HOK, is being built under general contractor Turner, will be LEED Silver upon completion, and is located just east of the White Flint Metro.

When finished, as there is still plenty of work to do after "topping out," the NRC building will join LCOR's previously completed component of the North Bethesda Center, the Wentworth House, an 18-story, 312-unit apartment with a green-roof Harris Teeter which, when finished in 2008, became the first of its kind. Mike Smith, VP of LCOR, says the Harris Teeter is doing well, and feels that the grocery amenity is one reason why LCOR has a healthy retention rate of residents at Wentworth - along with quick Metro access.

The 32-acre LCOR development site, formerly a golf course, is located between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville; an area surrounding the White Flint Metro that has grabbed the attention of several developers in the last several years, including Federal Realty (Mid-Pike Plaza), and JBG (North Bethesda Market).

Maryland real estate development news

NCPC Reviews Draft Plan for Homeland Security AU Park Site

Concerns over GSA’s draft Master Plan for the development of the Department of Homeland Security's Nebraska Avenue Complex (NAC), located at Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues in AU Park, led the National Capital Planning Commission - at its monthly meeting yesterday - to send GSA off with nine action points to address before returning in a few months.

After final approval from NCPC, GSA will begin acting on a finalized Master Plan, and GSA aims to please - in order to meet a Master Plan planning horizon of 2020 - which will require addressing the concerns raised by four of the 12 members of the NCPC, as well as the local ANC.

The plans call for raising the number of seats (employees on site at any one time) from 2,390 to 4,200, and decreasing onsite parking (from 1,239 to 1,150 spaces) without a site-specific Transportation Management Plan in place to assist with predicting the outcome on the surrounding area. DHS’s goal for expanding its operations at the NAC site - temporary headquarters of the DHS since 2003 - is to streamline the dilapidated and out-dated conditions at the aging NAC and save tax dollars by eliminating tens of facilities scattered across the District. With nearly 50 facilities now, DHS hopes to someday have seven or eight, and the NAC campus would be one of the biggest.

NCPC approved the expansion, but tasked GSA to continue to work with the National Park Service to minimize impact on nearby park lands, submit a phasing plan for the project, look at ways to increase the tree canopy, consider lowering the security level (from level 5, the maximum) to soften the public view of the complex, remove non-historically significant buildings, and to move the entry point for employees who commute (by metro, foot or bike) closer to the Tenleytown Metro stop. NCPC asked GSA to continue coordinating with the Department of Transportation and the Office of Planning on this issue.

The NAC is small compared to DHS’s future headquarters - St. Elizabeths' in Anacostia - a 3.4 million s.f. space that will accommodate 14,000 DHS employees and share land with the Coast Guard. The NAC sits on a more modest 1.7 million s.f. (38 acres), and all new construction will be done within the current complex area, leaving the forested portions of the site pristine.

As it stands now, the NAC area is 55% developed (30 buildings for a total of 653,400 s.f), the draft Master Plan proposes to add six new buildings and a four-level (two above ground, two below) parking structure, for a total 1.2 million s.f.
The plan would reduce onsite impervious surfaces by 17% by featuring a green roof on all new structures - the largest one nearly two acres (70,000 s.f.), which will cloak the top of the onsite parking structure in vegetation (also making the view easy on high-rise eyes).

The green roofs, coupled with a yet-to-be-determined combination of porous pavement installations, ponds, gravel beds and underground water detention systems, will not only help the NAC site to achieve an environmentally friendly LEED gold certification, but will help manage and reuse stormwater, reducing runoff. A stormwater management system is currently lacking onsite, something Jim Clark, principal at MTFA Architecture, the consulting firm for the NAC, called out at the meeting as a "grave issue."

The new, greener parking structure will replace the existing one, relocated to the back of the complex from its current location at Ward Circle. Taking the old structure's spot in the highly visible area will be a "signature building" which GSA deems the NAC's "flagship building" - something it hopes will give "the campus a public presence and face on the circle."

The development of the NAC also takes into account the preservation of existing historical structures left over from earlier manifestations of the site as both the Mount Vernon Seminary for Girls (in the early 1900s), until the Roosevelt administration took the property by eminent domain in 1942 to use in the war effort, staffed mostly by women for cryptanalysis. In 2005 the property was transferred from the Department of Navy to the GSA for exclusive use by Homeland Security. GSA is currently readying a nomination of the site to the National Register of Historic Places.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Breaking Ground, Nuclear-style

Today marks the groundbreaking for the new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) building at North Bethesda Center/White Flint Metro. Approximately 1,500 NRC employees will occupy the new 14-story building, across from the NRC campus, which has been designed by HOK to meet LEED Silver certification.

About a year ago, LCOR, in a partnership with USAA Real Estate Co., won out over several competitors for the opportunity to build the project for the General Services Administration and in October signed a lease that will make the new building home to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for at least 15 years.

The new government building will join LCOR's residential project, Wentworth House, which delivered in 2008. That project brought 312 units and a brand new Harris Teeter to North Bethesda, on a 32-acre site approximately halfway between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville. In total, LCOR's project are to bring eight highrise buildings to the area, encompassing eight city blocks (when subdivided), and will include 1,274 apartments at its completion, but little has happened on the site, which remains nearly in the state as it was when it served as a golf course.

The $131 million development is expected to take 27 months and building completion is expected in August 2012.

North Bethesda real estate development news

North Bethesda's Latest Project to Break Ground

North Bethesda better brush up on its knowledge of protons and neutrons because there will be a lot of particles moving around when construction starts this summer on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission building. On Monday, developer LCOR received a final approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board to build a new 362,000 s.f. office building at North Bethesda Center Metro, a.k.a. White Flint, a.k.a Rockville. About a year ago, LCOR, in a partnership with USAA Real Estate Co., won out over several competitors for the opportunity to build the project for the General Services Administration and in October signed a lease that will make the new building home to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for at least 15 years. According to Mike Smith, VP of LCOR, the project should begin construction in mid to late May; a formal groundbreaking will take place May 17th.

Approximately 1,300 NRC employees will occupy the new 14-story building, across from the NRC campus, which has been designed by HOK to meet LEED Silver certification. The new government building will join LCOR's residential project, Wentworth House, which delivered in 2008. That project brought 312 units and a brand new Harris Teeter to North Bethesda, on a 32-acre site approximately halfway between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville. In total, LCOR's project are to bring eight highrise buildings to the area, encompassing eight city blocks (when subdivided), and will include 1,274 multifamily housing units at its completion, but little has happened on the site, which remains nearly in the state as it was when it served as a golf course.

Smith was hesitant to predict the future of any of the other buildings, saying "we are waiting for market conditions to improve" before beginning work on the "next residential or another commercial project." The developer has not filed any plans with Montgomery-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for additional developments on the site.

CB Richard Ellis and Transwestern represented the LCOR-USAA joint venture (officially North Bethesda Center Office One, LLC) in the lease transaction, commercial real estate tenant rep firm Studley represented the GSA. Turner Construction will serve as general contract.

North Bethesda real estate development news

Feds Seek Lots More Space for Homeland Security Despite St. Elizabeths

After all the speeches, ceremonial shoveling and $3.4 billion tab, St. Elizabeths, the largest federal construction project since the Pentagon, will not actually serve as the ultimate uniter of the disjointed Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A core 14,000 DHS personnel, just under half of its DC area employees, will relocate to 4.5 million s.f. of space in the massive federal project, also future home of the Coast Guard headquarters. And yet on April 1st, the General Services Administration (GSA) will issue a request for proposals (RFP) for DHS - 1.1 million s.f. of leased space in the DC metro area to consolidate employees.

In her statement yesterday to the House Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security Elaine Duke, Undersecretary for Management at Homeland Security, said the DHS currently occupies over 7 million s.f. of office space in 46 locations throughout the DC area. Currently over 180 leases are set to expire between now and 2015. Bob Peck, Commissioner of GSA's Public Buildings Service, said the consolidation will maintain the four federally owned properties - St. Elizabeths, the Nebraska Avenue temporary HQ, the Secret Service Building and space in the Ronald Regan Building - as well as two standing long-term leases. The RFP will add another one to three locations for which new leases will be awarded in 2011 with employees moving in two to three years thereafter.

The space at St. Elizabeths is a significant step towards consolidating some of those widespread agencies, but it is far from being the panacea. DHS's new southeast HQ will serve as an "epicenter for DHS leadership, operations coordination, policy and program management." Everyone else will be reconfigured into government-owned buildings and long-term leased properties, with the hopes that an agency spread across more than 40 properties can be consolidated into a cozier 7 to 10 locations.

Though it is hard to imagine that a Pentagon- esque project is already insufficient to meet the needs of the agency for which it is being built, over-sized, empty commercial space in the DC area will get a boost. Properties like southwest's Constitution Center with its 1.3 million s.f. of space, blast-proof windows and in-house water filtration system leap to mind. There might even be available space in NoMa. Mike McGill, spokesperson for GSA in the National Capital Region, said the RFP does not require all 1.1 million s.f. of space to come from one location, smaller parcels may be eligible for consideration. GSA "is not against new construction, but we realize there is a lot of vacant existing space" in this climate. (We had heard the same rumor).

The new DHS site is funded partially through $650 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In total, the Recovery Act allocated $200 million to DHS and $450 million to GSA for construction of a new DHS headquarters at St. Elizabeths, $162 million of which will go to the Coast Guard facility alone.

Washington, DC real estate development news

FDA Blooms at White Oak

The General Services Administration (GSA) is gearing up for Phase 4 of the $900 million (and counting) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Headquarters Consolidation at the former site of the White Oak Naval Ordnance Laboratory off New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, MD.

More than 4,500 FDA employees have already taken up occupancy within seven completed White Oak campus buildings designed by KlingStubbins and RTKL and built by Tompkins Builders (a subsidiary of Turner Construction). Assuming additional government funding comes through for the 2.3 million square foot facility, construction on the final building should wrap up in 2013. Upon completion, about 8,000 employees from 39 leased offices across DC will relocate to White Oak, uniting at long last the likes of Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Center for Veterinary Medicine, and fostering what FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach promised in a 2008 Consolidation Report will be a new spirit of "scientific collaboration."

Phase 4 of the project is slated to begin construction this February. This $130 million portion of the project will add 560,050 s.f. of office, laboratory, and research space to the campus in two buildings and will ultimately toss another 1,159 FDA employees from the Office of Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Commissioner into the FDA party mix.

Bids for subcontractors are scheduled to be released any day. Until then, FDA Press Officer Chris Kelly tells DCMud that the FDA will be keeping mum "about the construction project, as it is procurement sensitive."

Silver Spring real estate development news

GSA and DHS Break Ground on Largest Federal Building Project Since Pentagon

Officials broke ground today on the largest federal building project in the Washington metro area since the Pentagon. The $435 million Coast Guard Headquarters is the first of three phases for the unified Department of Homeland Security (DHS) complex on the St. Elizabeths campus in Anacostia, and the first project to move the federal government into the historic neighborhood. In August, the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded the contract to Clark
Design/Build, LLC, WDG Architecture and HOK. The site obtained initial National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approval in January of this year, with full blown construction expected to begin early next year.

The new DHS site is funded partially through $650 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In total, the Recovery Act allocated $200 million to DHS and $450 million to GSA for construction of a new DHS headquarters at St. Elizabeths, $162 million of which will go to the Coast Guard facility alone. The facility will strive for LEED Silver certification by including green roofs, landscaped courtyards to control surface water runoff, and "innovative" heating and air conditioning systems. Occupancy of the new Coast Guard headquarters is expected by 2013.

The Center Building, pictured at left, will likely house the offices of the Secretary of DHS. Construction and renovation on this and other surrounding buildings will not occur until Phase 2. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and GSA Acting Administrator Paul Proty shoveled some serious dirt along with Representative Holmes Norton, Mayor Fenty, Councilmember Barry- as well as Senator Lieberman, for one of the most eclectic and highly paid ditch digging crews Washington DC has ever seen.

The DHS currently has 222,000 employees working at 35 offices throughout the Capitol region, DHS expects the consolidation will save taxpayers $163 million over the next 30 years. Construction of the new complex will produce an estimated 32,000 jobs, with many going to DC residents, especially if Norton has anything to do with it. The Congresswoman gave her own special welcome, saying "the federal government is crossing the Anacostia today, my friends. Come on over!" The residents of Ward 8, where the site is located, have the highest level of poverty in the city, with 35% unemployment, according to Councilmember Barry.

Despite the expected economic benefits for the area, the GSA has been involved in a series of Section 106 conversations, part of the National Historic Preservation Act by which community concerns are formally addressed. The local community and historic preservation groups raised concerns about public access to the land. Under the current Master plan, the public will have access to the cemetery, which includes soldiers from the Civil War, Hitchcock Hall, a large theater that once served the residents and staff at St. Elizabeths, and an area known as "The Point,"which boasts an expansive view of DC. Other concerns included the fate of Bald Eagles that call part of the campus home. The Master plan sets off a large section as "Eagle Zone" to prevent any encroachment.

The historic nature of the campus added a high level of complexity to the design and construction plans. On campus, 62 buildings are classified as "contributing" to the historical significance of St. Elizabeths. Of the 62, 52 will be retained and of the 10 that are scheduled to be demolished, 8 are dilapidated greenhouses. During a campus tour for media, GSA paused to showcase the demolition of one of the non-contributing buildings, the Mechanical and Electrical shop. St. Elizabeths was the first national mental health care facility in the country.

GSA Selects St. Elizabeths Team, Groundbreaking to Start

After years of planning and community outreach, the General Services Administration (GSA) has selected a development team and is mere weeks away from breaking ground at St. Elizabeths. In one of the largest construction contracts given in DC, GSA awarded the $435 million contract to Clark Construction, WDG Architecture and HOK to build the Coast Guard headquarters.

The three won out over a field of competitors including Hensel Phelps Construction with Shalom Baranes Associates, and Turner Construction with SOM. The GSA is using funding from the FY 2009 Appropriations and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("Recovery Act") of 2009 to fund the project.

The Coast Guard campus will be the first of 3 phases at the historic hospital. Phase 2 is the center building which will house the Department of Homeland Security Secretary's office as well as other senior administrative staff. Phase 3 will be largely new construction for storage and other similar warehouse facilities. According to Mike McGill, spokesman for the National Capital Region at GSA, groundbreaking and site preparation for the CG facility will begin in September. Actual construction will likely begin in the new year, pending final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). In January 2009 the NCPC approved the final master plan with a few "notes" or contingencies.

First, the GSA has to gain approval to build a west access road connecting Firth Sterling Avenue, SE to the modified Malcom X Ave/SE I-295 interchange through the Shepherd Parkway, which belongs to the National Park Service. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) determined that the planned access road is the only feasible option, so GSA is working with the National Park Service to minimize negative impacts on Shepherd Highway.

Second, the GSA is working with the D.C. State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Commission of Fine Arts and other "consulting parties, to determine whether the historic cemetery should fall inside or outside the security perimeter

According to Lisa MacSpadden, Director of Public Affairs at the NCPC, "any development with regards to the Coast Guard facility would be contingent on the items outlined in the commission action" from January 2009. The Coast Guard facility will be erected mostly on the federally-owned West Campus, and partly on the DC-owned East Campus- a compromise resulting from the 1987 land transfer that ceded teh East Campus to the District. At present, the Office of Planning is proceeding independently with their plan for 2 million square feet of private sector, mixed-use development south of the Coast Guard site. St. Elizabeths was the first national mental health care facility in the country.

Images provided courtesy of the National Capital Planning Commission as submitted by GSA for the project’s concept review.

Burnham Place Idles Toward Union Station

Akridge’s landmark $10 million development agreement with the General Services Administration to build over the rear of Union Station – the so-called Burnham Place project – was announced in 2006 and scheduled to go to ground this year. Their ambitious plans for 3 million square feet of office space, a 400-room hotel and residential towers, however, may have to wait if proposed upgrades to the transportation hub go forward later this year. But the developer posits that any boon to Union Station is also one in the plus column for Burnham Place.

“There’s a…Circuit Transportation Bill that is coming up before Congress that we’re working on. It would be six years worth of funds that would support Union Station improvements…The private development, of course, is an entirely different matter,” says Mary Margaret Plumridge, Director of Marketing and Communications for the developer. “The Akridge development of Burnham Place at Union Station certainly would benefit from an enhanced Union Station, but the public and private projects are separate.”

Nonetheless, Akridge spokespeople say the Burham Place development team is in constant communication with Amtrak as they tweak a development scheme that will see new construction from the back of the train station, over in-use tracks, above the “Hopscotch” H Street Bridge and beyond. Before lying brick one, it’s a project that some are already valuing at over $1 billion.

“We are working on pre-development work that includes design and engineering studies,” says Plumridge. “We’re working with Amtrak through the design and engineering processes, the project requires that we build while the trains are running…We’re even having some very preliminary discussions with some potential [office] users.”

Despite the incremental progress, a formal timeline for the project has yet to be and Akridge has also been unable to provide any new renderings of the façade, beyond the aerial jell-o mold shot (pictured) released in tandem with the project’s unveiling in 2006. Multiple inquires from DCmud to the project's architect, Shalom Baranes, have gone un-returned.

Coast Guard First to Deploy at St. Elizabeths

With favorable environmental impact and National Capital Planning Commission reports in the bag, the General Services Administration (GSA) will issue a Request for Qualifications on March 23rd targeted at a new 1,100,000 square foot US Coast Guard headquarters at the St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus.

Bidders on the design-build contract will be expected to meet “high performance green building design criteria” and to include provisions for a 990-space parking garage. Also of note, though the Coast Guard facility has been bundled together with the federally-owned West Campus, part of it will actually be erected on a northwestern piece of the DC-owned East Campus – a compromise resulting from the 1987 land transfer that the ceded the East Campus to District control. At present, the Office of Planning is proceeding independently with their plans for 2 million square feet of private sector, mixed-use development south of the Coast Guard site.

Funds for the new HQ will be drawn from the $346 million allotted to the GSA specifically for the St. Elizabeths redevelopment by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2009 federal budget. GSA spokesman Mike McGill told DCmud last month that “In terms of putting people in place on campus, the Coast Guard is going to be the first tenant. We anticipate that to be far enough along for them to begin moving in 2013.” GSA is currently projecting a April 2010 start for the Coast Guard project.

St. Elizabeths Gets the Green Thumbs Up

After years of preparation and political wrangling, DC's famed (but rarely visited) St. Elizabeths may at last have the authority it needs to begin a titanic redevelopment effort to turn the one-time insane asylum into the next headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security. Thanks to a pair of approvals over the past two months, the General Services Administration (GSA) has prevailed in their effort to relocate the DHS to the vacant St. Elizabeths West Campus, in Southeast Washington DC. According to GSA, the only hindrance now is to allocate the funds and select the team.

In December, the agency received a favorable Environmental Impact Statement concerning the project; the following month, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) sealed the deal with their approval of the GSA’s master plan for the site. In all, it’s a green light for the first relocation of a federal government agency east of the Anacostia - and one that paves the way for the District to pursue their own redevelopment initiatives in the surrounding Congress Heights neighborhood.

DHS’ workforce is currently housed in 70 buildings at 40 locations throughout the city, which, in the words of the report, “adversely impacts critical communication, coordination and cooperation across components.” Hence, over the course of five years of research, GSA determined a move to St. Elizabeths “to be the only reasonable alternative.” It’s a maneuver that will require the construction and renovation of some 4.65 million square feet of office and shared use space, plus construction of a new Coast Guard headquarters and the requisite parking.

According to the GSA’s own legally-mandated environmental assessment, any strain on the eco-system related to the move would be negligible at best. Though the report does point to “moderate” impact on streams, wetlands, groundwater and vegetation at the site, it finds them tolerable and expected, given the large influx of population, vehicles and infrastructure that will accompany DHS.

Approvals in hand, the federal government expects actual construction to commence by the third quarter of 2009. Mike McGill of the GSA detailed just what steps remain before shovels hit the ground at St. Elizabeths. "We have to get an appropriation in the Fiscal Year 09 Omnibus Appropriation Act passed by Congress. Right now, we’re operating under a continuing resolution that expires March 6th," said McGill. "The present FY09 budget asks for $346 million for St. Elizabeths. That would cover the cost of construction of Phase I, the Coast Guard Headquarters and the cost of design for Phase II. Assuming that we do get that appropriation, we would then advertise this summer for proposals from general contractors, select a contractor and have them under contract before the end of the fiscal year [on September 30th]."

What's not to be crazy about? For one, locals fear the project may become a high-security fortress that fosters no interaction with the local economy. Others decry potential harm to the environment, government assurances aside, that such a massive build-out would risk. But preservationists have been fit to be tied about changes to St. Elizabeths historic character.

The NCRC report makes no bones about damage to St. Elizabeths buildings, despite the fact that the West Campus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 1990. It almost guarantees “direct, major, long-term, adverse impacts on [St. Elizabeths] historic buildings,” including the demolition of an unspecified number of the century-old (or more) structures. Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which had previously included St. Elizabeths on its 2002 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places, wrote the following in a Washington Post editorial designed to rebuke the GSA’s feel good assessment of the hospital’s prospects as the DHS headquarters:

“[DHS] needs and deserves a consolidated headquarters – but this campus isn’t the place for it. The National Park Service calls the GSA plan ‘wholly incompatible’ with the preservation of St. Elizabeths. What’s more, the government’s own projections show that after all the tearing down and building up and paving over are done, the St. E’s campus still would not provide all the office space that DHS needs…in the meantime, a unique urban asset would be wasted, a historic treasure would be turned into a fortress and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spark revitalization in a long-neglected neighborhood would be lost.”

Since the West Campus is a federally-owned parcel, the District's own, typically stringent Historic Preservation Review Board has no bearing on what happens to the structures on site; however, the preservation thread was one picked up on the following month, in the NCPC ruling – albeit without the same level of tenacity. After taking into account the historic nature of the West Campus and its contribution to the evolution of modern medical and psychiatric care, the security needs of both the DHS and its staff were found to trump the historicity of the present facilities. At the same time, the NCPC stressed that the gross majority of the vacant buildings on site will not face demolition and, in fact, receive their first renovations ever in their decades-long history.


“[St. Elizabeths] includes 82 contributing buildings, 62 of which are on the West Campus. Fifty-one of the 62 contributing buildings would be rehabilitated in the accordance with the Final Master Plan,” states the NCPC report. Measures will also be undertaken during construction to ensure it would “minimize impacts to historic landscapes.” At the same time, the few West Campus areas left open to the public over the past decades – the Point, the Cemetery, and Hitchcock Hall – will remain so, and receive infrastructural overhauls. Overall, the NCPC sees the project as boon to not only a historic landmark that has been vacant since 2002, but to a part of the District that has been isolated from the rest of DC development for far longer.

That’s because NCPC approval – one of the final steps for the DHS relocation - means that the Fenty administration, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Office of Planning can proceed unimpeded with plans to redevelop the District-controlled Eastern Campus into more than 2 million square feet of mixed-use development.

All of it would put an increased strain on the infrastructure of the surrounding Southeast neighborhood, tempered by proposed infrastructural improvements to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenues, SE - two Congress Heights traffic arteries that could not cope unaided with the expected increase in daily use.

St. Elizabeths West is to be built in three phases over the next 8 years – the first of which is intended to start by the end of the year. Though the District has yet to commit to a timeline for their development of the campus' eastern flank, McGill says that, “In terms of putting people in place on campus, the Coast Guard is going to be the first tenant. We anticipate that to be far enough along for them to begin moving in in 2013.”

Years Late, Old Post Office May Deliver

President George Bush has signed a bill into law that seems to finally set in motion the redevelopment of the Old Post Office building at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, in downtown DC's Federal Triangle. The law specifically encourages the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop the building upon authority it received back in 2001, but which the GSA failed to implement.

The federal law specifically faults the GSA, given authority to redevelop the building in 2001, for dallying to produce its 2004 Request for Expressions of Interest, a document which generated substantial buzz and private sector feedback at the time, but which the GSA miscarried, leaving it unchanged. GSA could not be reached for comment.

GSA and the Office of Management and Budget had been evaluating redevelopment options for the famed edifice on Pennsylvania Avenue for a number of years. Federal Triangle’s Old Post Office was the largest government building and the first steel-framed building in the capital when initially built as the headquarters of the Post Office Department in an attempt to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood.

Complete demolition is not a threat as it was after WWII, but under the National Historic Preservation Act the government space can be leased to private tenants, providing endless possible uses for the building. In the 80’s, the GSA tried to take advantage of this by creating retail space on the first two floors, a project that has since proved financially unsuccessful. Congress suggested that the use of the lower level space not be predetermined, but rather this redevelopment project to be used as an opportunity for developers to submit unique ideas for the building – with the stipulation that any changes made to the inside of the building during redevelopment be reversible.

The bill calls for the facility to put to a better use than its’ current incarnation as the home of a food court and a dwindling number of government offices. This would mark the first step towards the realization of one of the key tenets of the National Framework Plan (which DC Mud reported on last Friday). Specifically, the Plan calls for the 109-year-old historic building to be incorporated into the grounds of a new, mixed-use development that would stretch from 9^th Street to 12^th Street NW. How this would affect any current tenants remains to be seen. The GSA is given specific authority to move the current federal tenants into other buildings.

The speed of the redevelopment does seem a bit, well, postal, given that the idea was initially put forth…wait for it…44 years ago. The Pennsylvania Avenue Commission - initiated by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 - recommended the demolition of the Post Office to allow for completion of Federal Triangle and revitalization of what was then a decaying strip of Pennsylvania Ave. Nancy Hawks, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts at the time, led a crusade against the measure that included letter writing campaigns and full blown street protests. Eventually, the government backed away from the matter and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places – a status that will protect it against demolition during any redevelopment efforts that take place. Metropole