WASHINGTON — Federal officials are scrapping plans to move FBI headquarters to a suburban location, according to multiple sources.
As first reported by The Washington Post — and confirmed by the Washington Business Journal — the apparent decision is the latest setback in an effort to relocate the bureau. General Services Administration officials will announce the decision Tuesday morning, the Post reported.
The FBI building project has been under discussion for years. The three final choices for the new site were Greenbelt and Landover, in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia.
The project would have brought about 11,000 jobs to the site that was picked.
The plan had been slowed in recent months because the General Services Administration demanded that the project, estimated to cost $2.5 billion, be fully funded by Congress. Roughly a billion dollars has been set aside so far.
Both Prince George’s and Fairfax counties had made strong pitches for the building during the process.
A Fairfax County report in 2015 said that the average FBI worker would have a 28-minute commute to Springfield, compared with 36 to Landover and 37 minutes to Greenbelt.
Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker III said in March that the selection of either of his locations “would do the same thing for Prince George’s County that the Pentagon did for Northern Virginia.” He added, “Based on everything that the FBI and GSA and [the Office of Management and Budget] have told us that they want, our two sites are really the ones that meet their requirements.”
A huge project at the Greenbelt Metro station combining a hotel, office, retail and residential buildings has been on hold for years, pending the decision on the FBI site. Metro’s real estate director said last year that the project “would not move forward” if the FBI chose a different site.
WTOP’s Jack Pointer contributed to this report.
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