"That enables us to start," says Brian Coulter, partner with JBG.

The agency, about five blocks away at 500 C St. SW, has signed a 10-year lease to fill 310,000 sf of a 430,000-sf building in Potomac Center. In March 2003, it expects to move about 1,000 workers into the new 12-story building, which will become its headquarters.

The developers expect to renovate and expand the existing Blue Cross/Blue Shield building at Maryland Avenue and 12th Street SW into a structure of 800,000 to 900,000 sf, although they could go as large as one million sf. Covering the entire block bounded by those two streets and ramps to and from the Southwest Freeway and Interstate 395, it would be one of the largest privately owned properties in the city. The General Services Administration signed the lease for FEMA, which will cost $31 per sf.