Patent Office Debuts Phase I of 2M-SF Headquarters

ALEXANDRIA, VA-It has been years in the making, but development of the new headquarters locale for the US Patent and Trademark Office, a division of the US Department of Commerce, has finally become a reality with this week’s official opening of the first of several office structures that will ultimately grace the 15-acre compound. The Remsen Building accounts for just 380,000 sf of what will be a 2.4-million sf, $680-million campus. In the largest federal lease in US history, project developer LCOR Alexandria LLC will lease two million sf of the property’s class A office space to the General Services Administration for USPTO’s use under a 20-year agreement.

The Remsen Building will house 2,600 of the USPTO’s 7,100 employees who have been scattered among 18 different office facilities in Arlington, VA. And while the organization was in dire need of contiguous and upgraded office spaces, it will downsize in the move with the conversion of most of its major components to electronic applications, thereby eliminating a great chunk of its need for filing space.