Government

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is planning to replace its existing East Point facility with a new 350,000-sf regional records center in Morrow, Ga. Annexes in Palmetto and Birmingham, Ala., will also be consolidated with the new facility. NARA is the federal agency that provides records storage, management, and archival genealogical reference services to federal agencies and the public. NARA currently operates 15 records center facilities nationwide.

Federal IT and security contractor NCI Information Systems has relocated its corporate headquarters from Tysons Corner to Reston, Va. The company leased 76,716 sf of office space at Plaza America, a 1.2 million-sf development that is nearly 50% leased by government-related tenants. NCI relocated to accommodate growth and increase customer and employee convenience.

The D.C. Housing Authority has awarded Hensel-Phelps Construction the design-build contract to construct the Youth Services Center in Washington. The 120,000-sf detention facility will be constructed with HOK as lead designer. The project is slated for completion in May 2004.

The Alameda County General Services Agency has signed a 30-year lease for the planned Thomas L. Berkeley Square development in Oakland. The 101,000-sf facility will serve as the Social Services Agency's administrative headquarters and will consolidate divisions currently dispersed across Oakland. The North Alameda County Self Sufficiency Center, a welfare job training program, will also be housed in the building.

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Department broke ground in mid-January 2003 on a biosafety lab that will enable the department to test for and detect potential bio-terrorist materials to protect both state residents and their food supply.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will occupy a 140,000-sf facility under construction in the Redland Tech Center in Rockville. Slated for completion in March of 2003, the facility includes a 670-car surface parking lot. Developer The Stephen A. Goldberg Co. plans to build two more facilities at the Redmond Tech Center for a total of 500,000 sf. The project is sited on 27 acres of forest preserve, of which the buildings occupy 13 acres.

The Department of Defense will occupy a 150,000-sf facility in Columbia's Oak Ridge Industrial Park in Howard County. The building houses 50,000-sf of laboratory space and was the former North American headquarters of Bookham Technology.

The U.S.

The California Department of Health Services is nearing completion of its Richmond, Calif., complex. Construction manager McCarthy has guided the project's two phases, totaling more than 475,000-sf of offices, life sciences laboratories, animal facilities and warehousing space. The largest non-design-build project ever undertaken by the State of California, the $130-million project completes in January 2003 after a 4-year construction schedule.

Construction will begin in March 2003 on the first building of Trammel Crow's planned $300-million Patriot Plaza in Washington, D.C. The first phase, designed to accommodate a government or private tenant, consists of a 280,000-sf office facility pre-engineered to meet stringent security regulations, including the framework to accommodate blast-proof windows, 30-foot setbacks from the curb, a hardened shell, and progressive collapse avoidance.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will occupy between 25,000 sf and 50,000 sf of furnished and IT-ready space in its new headquarters facility in Pentagon City in January, 2003. By March 1, TSA will occupy a total of 150,000 sf. Eventually TSA will occupy 491,000 sf of the complex, which formerly housed WorldCom's MCI Network Services.  

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has received approval from the federal government to build a laboratory for the study of potential biological weapons in Livermore, Calif. Rated Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3), the lab will enable research in the detection of potential threats including anthrax, botulism, and other diseases. In planning the facility, the National Nuclear Security Administration reviewed 92 public comments and, as a result, incorporated 33 changes to the planned facility.

The City of Poway broke ground on a 5,900-sf council chamber building and a two-story 50,400-sf City Hall office building in October 2002. The $14.6-million project was designed by McGraw/Baldwin Architects. Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. is providing construction management services.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will occupy a second building at Station Place in Washington. The lease of up to 360,000 sf, to deliver in 2005, will bring the government agency's facilities to over 1 million sf. Developed by Louis Dreyfus Properties Group, the headquarters project includes the previous lease of 650,000 sf slated for occupancy in mid-2004. SEC's total occupancy at the Station Place site will comprise 1.5-million-sf in three buildings.

The General Services Administration is planning a 93,000-sf expansion of the 654,000-sf H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse in Washington. Project cost is expected to range from $50- to $100-million. The expansion includes a 79,000-sf addition to the Family Court entrance and a 13,900-sf pavilion addition to the Superior Court entrance.