District Beats Virginia in Bid to House Homeland Security Dept.

WASHINGTON, DC-The tug of war between the District and Northern Virginia over which area would become the home of the newly established Department of Homeland Security has come to a surprising end. After having seriously considered a handful of sites in nearby Virginia, government officials changed gears and chose office space in Washington, DC. The employees of the new cabinet will make their headquarters–at least, for the foreseeable future–in space at the US Naval Security Station in the northwest area of the city. The first employees will begin moving into the space on Monday. Officials expect the transition to take five weeks.

Located at the corner of corner of Nebraska and Massachusetts avenues, the 38-acre Naval Security Station complex encompasses 32 buildings accounting for 566,000 sf of office space. For the last two months the General Services Administration, the government’s real estate arm, had been soliciting bids for leasable space offering about 275,000 sf and 1,000 on site parking spots. At the Naval Security Station, Homeland Security’s offices will start out in a four-story structure on the campus.