BRAC Decisions Realign Area Markets

WASHINGTON, DC-City and federal development officials will find out within days which agency–if any at all–will receive rights to use or develop the Walter Reed Army Medical Center facilities. Last year the Base Realignment and Closure Commission announced Walter Reed would close with healthcare operations shifting to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in North Bethesda and Fort Belvoir.

Both the Department of State and General Services Administration have expressed interest in it, according to Bill Wilcox Jr., real estate attorney with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and former counsel in the environmental division of the Department of Defense’s BRAC office. “The Army has until May 9 to make its final determination.” He says the Army may decide it is not in its best interest to pass the building to another agency. It may also decide, he adds, to bestow some or all of the facilities to the city, although DC is further down in the screening order’s hierarchy.

Changes are ahead for the Washington/Baltimore region as a result of BRAC, some of which–like the Walter Reed decision–are still unfolding. Citing security concerns, the Pentagon announced it would not renew a number of leases in Northern Virginia.