WASHINGTON, DC-The new US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters located at New York and Florida avenues, NE in NoMA is officially occupied with federal employees having completed their move into the newly constructed building this week. The building's development was a milestone for this neighborhood, which over the last 18 months has attracted several hundred of millions of dollars of investment from office, residential, hotel and retail developers. Essentially, the government's decision to locate here, along with the New York Avenue Metro station next door, put the neighborhood on the map.

“With three million sf of new development under way this year, ATF employees will soon be joined by new offices, apartments, hotels, and retail space,” says Elizabeth Price, president of the NoMA BID. The ATF building, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, broke ground several years ago with the tear down of an abandoned railroad trestle and remediation of some 80,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site. GSA also rebuilt portions of First, Second, and N streets, NE that had been closed for a century to give access to the ATF building, the Metro station, and adjacent parcels slated for private sector development.

The ATF building is expected to achieve a Silver LEED rating from the US Green Buildings Council. Its architectural features include a 95-foot-high atrium, green roofs, a sunken garden with a reflecting pool, and a courtyard with a memorial honoring those who died in service to ATF.