The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) announcement of moving its headquarters to a new location has spurred a fierce competition among various regional communities and Congressmen who are constantly trying to lure the agency into setting up base in their area.
According to The Advocate, the virtual contest started off at a House subcommittee hearing that was held in March. Contenders vying for the honor of hosting the FBI building include the District of Columbia, which is apparently offering a waterfront site located near the highways along with a league baseball stadium and easy access to public transit. Another aggressive bidder is the Prince George's County in Maryland, which already homes feds specializing in cybersecurity and intelligence research. Northern Virginia is also offering facilities like proximity to the CIA headquarters and its training academy in the area.
"You would expect there to be competition among the jurisdictions for a development project as favorable as the FBI. We're all friends. We're going to try to sell our jurisdictions as the best sites," Steny Hoyer, representative of Maryland who testified to bid for the new location of the agency's headquarters before a Housing Committee, said to the Huffington Post.
The General Services Administration, an agency that supports the functioning of Federal agencies, has received dozens of offers since the initial announcement. It is, however, planning to sell off the now-crippled J. Edgar Hoover Building and use the proceedings to fund its new headquarters. In a January press meet, the GSA stated that it requires a 2.1 million square feet office to hold around 11,000 employees.
The J. Edgar Hoover Building has served as headquarters for the agency for almost 40 years. However, after the September 11 attacks, the place has proven to be unsafe. The agency has also outgrown the building. Only about half of the agency's employees work in the Washington office while the rest are camped in the Clarksburg and Quantico offices. Since the attack, the agency has increased its staff by 25 percent and now needs more space.
While the debate is still on and bidding gets fiercer by the minute, the FBI has not taken any decision on where it will relocate yet. The immense interest in FBI's new location is not a surprise. Having the Feds in a particular location not only adds real estate value but also gives a sense of class to the region.
"Think about the daytime population, people coming to the FBI headquarters morning, noon and night. Think about the potential for people relocating from one jurisdiction to the other to be closer to work. Wherever they decide to relocate, it's going to have an impact throughout the region - not just in that one jurisdiction but throughout that region," Douglas Cooper, representative for the Urban Land Institute in Washington said to the Associated Press.