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Construction of new DHS headquarters close

Department waits for final approval from planning commission

Federal News Network Staff

October 22, 2008 5:19 pm

2 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
FederalNewsRadio

The Homeland Security Department is waiting for its final approval to begin construction of its new headquarters at the St. Elizabeth hospital complex in southeast Washington, D.C.

The city’s National Capital Planning Commission will review DHS’s plans in January and final approval is expected.

“For the past three years, we’ve been working closely with the General Services Administration, the District of Columbia, the local community and other stakeholders with an interest in St. Elizabeth’s to establish a consolidated DHS headquarters that meets our minimum needs of 4.5 million square feet of office space, while at the same time we want to preserve this historic landmark,” says DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie.

One way to meet DHS’s office space needs is by putting some of the department’s office space on the east campus. As it stands now, DHS would occupy the 183 acre west campus.

The D.C. government would redevelop the east campus for retail and office space, says Harriet Tregoning, the director of the office of planning for the D.C. government.

Orluskie says splitting up office space is a viable solution as long as the city and GSA meets DHS’s needs and timeline.

Tregoning says the city’s small area plan recommends giving DHS a 700,000 square foot building on the east side of campus near the existing D.C. unified communications center.

The city council will review the small area plan in December and approval is expected, says Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC)

DHS received about $97 million in its fiscal 2009 spending bill to begin work on its new headquarters.

Orluskie says DHS initially will build the Coast Guard’s new headquarters office on the St. Elizabeth campus.

He says additional funding is needed to move all of DHS’s 14,000 employees to St. Elizabeth’s.

Norton says lawmakers will need some convincing to fund the project.

“I have to convince Congress that we need to build here because will not cost less to build somewhere else because we already own this land,” she says.

Another hurdle is making sure the transportation infrastructure can handle the influx of commuters.

Orluskie says DHS reduced the number of parking spaces it requires to about 1,000. DHS does not want underground parking, Tregoning says.

DHS also will run shuttles from the Congress Heights and Anacostia metro stations.

Tregoning says the city is talking to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) on whether new metro stations or expanding existing ones is possible to the east campus area.

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On the Web:

DHS – DHS Fact Sheet of progress after five years