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

NCPC Approves Coast Guard Headquarters Design

The new United States Coast Guard (USCG) headquarters planned for St. Elizabeths is now on track to begin construction as soon as February. The latest building designs, reviewed again and approved today by the by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), include 1.175 million s.f. of space for upwards of 3,860 employees, addressing concerns raised by NCPC last January. Among those issues are increased traffic on Shepherd Highway, the massing of the USCG building and garage, and the location of the security perimeter with respect to the historic cemetery on the site of the first national mental health facility in the country. Last August GSA awarded the $435 million construction contract to Clark Construction, WDG Architecture and HOK , with concept designs by Perkins and Will. The Coast Guard campus will be the first of 3 phases at the historic hospital. Phase 2, the center building, will house the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary's office and other "senior" staff. Phase 3 will be largely new construction for storage and other warehouse facilities. The Shepherd Highway issue is a sticky overlap of various federal authorities including the Federal Highway Administration, DHS, the General Services Administration, the National Park Service, the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Interior. DHS and GSA, along with the FHA, have determined that the highway is the best way for construction vehicles to access the West Campus to state construction. The National Park Service, which owns the land, objects because a portion would likely see permanent negative affects, but in the end the group agreed to keep exploring alternatives and continue on schedule for February construction. The Coast Guard HQ and parking garage will be built on a 118 ft slope visible from Haines Point and from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Concerns about the appearance of the HQ as seen from around the city led to reduced massing and planning for additional vegetation. The new plan also adjusts the visibility of the garage which would originally have been five levels above-grade, two below, but now proposes an inversion - only two above-grade and five below, but with an expanded footprint. The garage will provide 1,973 parking spaces and will serve both the USCG and the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. The exterior of the garage on the northern facade now swaps an extended green wall system with the previous zinc-clad frame. Finally, though the original Master Plan created a security perimeter that excluded the historic cemetery, new plans include the cemetery within the security perimeter to restore it "to its place as an integral part of the West Campus." NCPC will hear more plans in March when they review Phase 1B. 

Washington DC commercial real estate 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.

Secy. Napolitano Offers Thoughts on St. Elizabeths

Secretary of Homeland Security and former Arizona Governor, Janet Napolitano, toured her agency’s new home at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Southeast Washington D.C. this week with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and, in doing so, revealed some previously unheard details regarding the relocation. In her own Special Olympics-like gaffe, the Secretary referred to St. Elizabeths as being in “a very run-down part of the District of Columbia.” Not a Bush league malapropism, but take a cue from Mayor Fenty…it’s “ripe for economic redevelopment.” But Napolitano did reveal news that bodes well for Ward 8. According to the Secretary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is aiming to do the same thing for the surrounding neighborhood that the CIA did for Langley and the Pentagon did for Northern Virginia. Namely, they'll be focusing attention on areas once thought undesirable or outside of the metro area development bubble. In a response to a question from Blitzer, Napolitano said: “I think when the Pentagon was created there were many of the same arguments were made about being a bad neighbor, not helping the local economy and the like and those have not been borne out.” And who doesn't want to live next to the Pentagon now.In the course of the interview, Napolitano also stated that, in addition to the $346 million set aside for the DHS relocation Fiscal Year 2009 congressional budget, the project will be receiving funds from the Stimulus Package - making it the first DC area development to get a boost via the controversial bill. Said Napolitano:

This project [will receive] $650 million and it will equate to 33,000 jobs in this area, $1.2 billion immediate stimulus to the local economy and if you look at this area of the District you’d understand that this will be very beneficial to the overall quality of life in this area of this District.

Unfortunately, CNN has yet to post video of the interview, which also included a tour of St. Elizabeths landmarks, including future staff offices, including Napolitano’s, and the former cell of poet, and one-time inmate, Ezra Pound. In the meantime, a full transcript is available here.

Washington DC commercial property news

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.”

Sky-Low Prices in Randle Highlands

Just days after the District went public with a proposal for the redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus, PERS Development, LLC is opening the doors on the Sky DC condo development - "apartment homes" in Southeast's Randle Highlands neighborhood. It's a move they hope will dovetail with the Department of Homeland Security's proposed move to the area and draw "more working class individuals...towards this part of the District."

The $4 million development at 1620 29^th Street SE got its Sky DC moniker from the so-called "million dollar view" available from the rooftop deck. Totaling 17,000 square feet, PERS is offering amenities like built-in iPod docks, bamboo floors and temperature controlled wine coolers to court "new homeowners and young professionals" – a cause reflected in the relatively low $200,000 price points for the condos. The project was designed by Bethesda based architects, Easta Inc.

This is PERS’ fourth project in the District and the developer plans on branding it just as they have the others – with “a signature waterfall in the front exterior”. Furthermore, the developer describes itself as the “Carmax of Condo Buying” - due to their “no haggle, lower than market prices” – a point you can debate in person when they hold their second open house this Sunday.

Post your comment about this project below.

St. Elizabeths Plan Envisions Massive Redevelopment

The District announced a new plan today to kickstart redevelopment of the old St. Elizabeths mental institution in Ward 8. If approved by the District Counsel, the series of projects will beef up one of DC's poorest neighborhoods with nearly 3 million square feet of mixed-use development. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning were on hand today to announce the release of the St. Elizabeths East Redevelopment Framework Plan, which recommends transforming the hospital’s eastern, District-owned flank into five neighborhoods, "each with their own character," and pushes for the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) proposed relocation to federally-controlled St. Elizabeths West. The government transferred ownership of the eastern portion to the District in 1987, while retaining the western campus for its own use.

The Plan is sprawling in its scope – the size of the District-owned eastern half alone measures in at 173 acres. Together, construction on the two campuses - separated only by Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE - would be second only to the revitalization efforts underway on the Southeast Waterfront in terms of size and scope.

“I think what we have proposed…will not only benefit the people who live in Ward 8 and east of the river, but, just as importantly, the entire city,” said Fenty.

Redevelopment at St. Elizabeths East would create up to 2 million square feet of new mixed-use projects and 750,000 s.f. of renovated historic space. The proposed neighborhoods (pictured, below) are being broken down into the North Campus, Maple Campus, Town Square, CT Village and Metro Station; each would feature a distinct blend of commercial, retail and/or residential space, in addition to “civic and community” areas. The northern portion of the site has been reserved for DHS office space and parking – a move made to sweeten the deal for the Feds, no doubt (more on that in a bit). Meanwhile, the historic St. Elizabeths Hospital, its new 435,000-square foot secondary building and John Howard Cemetery on the grounds would be retained.

The Plan also includes provisos for a cohesive link to the two local Metro stations and MLK corridor, where the City is betting on seeing an influx of retailer and developer interest.

On the western campus, DHS’ proposed relocation would include the construction of new, secure headquarters meant to accommodate roughly 14,000 government employees. If and when the project moves forward, it would mark the first time the federal government has ever crossed the Anacostia River, according to Congresswoman Norton. DHS currently lacks a consolidated headquarters, with offices at different locations throughout the city.

The impact of such large workforce on the environment, Metro capability and local traffic is still being evaluated, while the inclusion of the site in the proposed southeast street car system is still a possibility.

The District will submit the Plan to the City Council next month with a decision to follow in December. A Request for Proposals regarding the DHS parking lots and offices is planned for December as well, the District hopes to break ground on that phase of the project in the first half of 2009. Norton described development as moving along an “unusually fast track.”

The Plan is the product of more than 5 years of parallel development by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the District. According to Norton, it's has been included in the Bush administration's budget for three straight years, but has only been able to move forward, ironically enough, since the Democrats came to power in Congress. The challenge now lies in convincing that same body that moving DHS to another, federally-owned piece of property in Southeast would be beneficial and, most importantly, cheap. It would appear that the future of both East and West hinges on a decision by the federal government; if DHS settles on another location or Congress blocks the site, it could be a deal breaker for both halves of St. Elizabeths.

“There will be great potential here if we continue to do it right. The city and the government will work closely together, as we have on projects in the past,” said Norton.

A budget for the project is forthcoming, and Norton will be holding a town hall meeting tonight from 5:30 - 7:30 PM at the UPO /Petey Greene Community Service Center (2907 MLK Jr. Ave SE) to disclose more details and listen to questions from the public. Another community meeting will be held at St. Elizabeths on October 28^th.