WASHINGTON - The FBI’s announcement that it needs a new home has communities across the region jockeying for the opportunity to attract the law enforcement agency - and economic benefits - to their neighborhoods.
The pursuit has turned congressmen from neighboring states into competing pitchmen, spurred newspaper opeds and even required a public apology from an economic-development official who disparaged another community bidding for the headquarters.
Public debate on Capitol Hill and in the real estate development community has focused on whether an agency whose identity is linked to the nation’s capital could find a more suitable home in the Washington suburbs.
The contenders include Maryland’s Prince George’s County, already home to federal agencies specializing in intelligence research and cyber-security.
Northern Virginia proponents boast of the area’s high-quality schools and proximity to the CIA headquarters and other existing FBI facilities, including its training academy, in the area.
The District of Columbia is also offering a waterfront site near highways, public transit and a major league baseball stadium. The General Services Administration, which oversees federal office space, has received about three-dozen submissions since its request for ideas to develop a new headquarters of approximately 2.1 million square feet.
One idea under consideration is a property swap in which a developer would take over the existing FBI headquarters in exchange for constructing or providing a new building for the agency.
That possible arrangement would allow the government to save on costs of a new land acquisition while a developer would get the chance to build the new headquarters and repurpose a downtown city block.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/21/2013