Breaking news. Trump Administration has cancelled plan to build a new FBI headquarters. I wonder what the guy who kept saying Springfield is a done deal will say now.

Stroker Ace Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Breaking news. Trump Administration has cancelled
> plan to build a new FBI headquarters. I wonder
> what the guy who kept saying Springfield is a done
> deal will say now.


He will say it's done.

WaPo's got an article on this at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2017/07/10/e25c1080-65af-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html

My takeaway is that despite really, really wanting a shiny new building, they just couldn't sell it to Congress. Even with all the shenanigans about trading the Hoover Building site to a developer, it still had a $2 billion price tag.

I am curious as to what this does for the Springfield Town Center project. There've been rumblings that PREIT's ready to move on to the next phase of the project, which involves building a lot of shit in the parking lots of STC.

Now that the Parr Warehouse is going to remain a warehouse, at least for the foreseeable future, does this have any bearing on what PRIET wants to do going foreward?

In this day and age, with video conferencing, the internet and cell phone networks, there is no reason for the administration of our nation's government to be so centralized geographically. And that's not to say that DOS should be in Alaska and DOD should be in Miami and the Treasury should be San Diego, etc...

However, it is a financial overexpendenture to rent space and own properties and buildings with the kinds of price tags associated with downtown Washington, DC. The Feds really need to change their real estate footprint and begin exploring Northern VA and suburban MD options. To say nothing of the security risk of having so much of the US Gov't within the 68 sq. miles of DC. Yes, the critical functions have redundancies but why not spread out, lower your annual rent and reduce (not eliminate) some risk? It certainly would provide a bit of relief to the morning commute.

I work at DOJ and in my department, anybody GS-13 or lower is encouraged to work from home and the office space was reduced by 30% and we all hot-seat desks now. It kind of sucks not having "My Desk" but, we're only in the office 1 or 2 days per week. Obviously not all federal jobs can work like this. But, it's clear that a new way of working is working for some and more should consider new ways of getting the same work done in different, less expensive and more secure ways.

They have metal netting to catch the pieces of concrete falling off of the building that would otherwise hit pedestrians on the sidewalk. Very shortsighted. The building is not functional on the inside and falling apart on the outside. How much did we spend to work on the Capitol building and the Washington Monument????

> Obviously not all federal jobs can work like this.

Ya ..LOL..Very Little Work and Better pay then 98% of America..

DAJAX

>I work at DOJ and in my department, anybody GS-13 or lower is encouraged to work from home

How The Hell do the Janitors Clean the Building From Home..??

LOL..DAJAX..Former Fat Fed..Whos In The Know..!!

fracturedfairfax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WaPo's got an article on this at
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/20
> 17/07/10/e25c1080-65af-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_stor
> y.html
>
> My takeaway is that despite really, really wanting
> a shiny new building, they just couldn't sell it
> to Congress. Even with all the shenanigans about
> trading the Hoover Building site to a developer,
> it still had a $2 billion price tag.
>
> I am curious as to what this does for the
> Springfield Town Center project. There've been
> rumblings that PREIT's ready to move on to the
> next phase of the project, which involves building
> a lot of shit in the parking lots of STC.
>
> Now that the Parr Warehouse is going to remain a
> warehouse, at least for the foreseeable future,
> does this have any bearing on what PRIET wants to
> do going foreward?


Gerry Connolly wasted no time weighing in:

“Reports that the federal government is pulling the plug on a new FBI headquarters reveals insurmountable Trump conflicts with GSA, FBI, and Vornado,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said Monday night, referring to Vornado Realty Trust. “This is devastating news. Conflicts have consequences.”

I guessing that any new building in the future won't be called the James Comey Jr. Building.

No need to replace that building, looks fine, and it ain't Trump's fault.

Gery's Kids Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Gerry Connolly wasted no time weighing in:
>
> “Reports that the federal government is pulling
> the plug on a new FBI headquarters reveals
> insurmountable Trump conflicts with GSA, FBI, and
> Vornado,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said
> Monday night, referring to Vornado Realty Trust.
> “This is devastating news. Conflicts have
> consequences.”


Once again, Gerry Connolly plays the role of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.

Why oh Dear G@d why does the FBI need a head quarters in the National Capital Region????? Please remind me what century this is? Oh yeah it's the F@c#ing 21st century. Trump just missed an EPIC opportunity to create jobs in the very region he promised to help. He and Mike Pence could have moved the entire FBI headquarters to Indianapolis and saved the American tax payer big $$$$$$.

The article stated there are about 9,500 employees in the FBI HQ. What would the economic impact of moving 9,000 of those employess to Indiana be on that state? Lets just make a conservative estimated guess of the salary of the employees working at the FBI HQ. Lets say $90,000 (Roughly a GS-13 base pay). Multiply that by 9000 employees and Mike Pence could have added 810 million bucks to the economy of Indiana.

How could have moving the FBI HQ to Indiana saved us money. GSA rates in that state are much much lower than rates in the NCR. Moving staff out of the NCR also improves security as cheap land can be bought and developed to meet the toughest security standards vs trying to shoe horn into a site. It's always easier and cheaper to develop an empty field. Don't forget no more DC COLA!

Then there is the quality of life for the employees who would have a much lower cost of living and let’s not forget the commute! A contingent of some 500 staff would remain in DC at a small office to serve the Director and leadership who are required to brief congress. Hell, you could merge the DC SAC office with HQ and save even more money!!!! Bottom line I’m sick and tired of reading about STUPIDITY. WE DO NOT NEED PEOPLE CONCENTRATED IN THE NCR!! WE HAVE TECHNOLOGY THAT CONNECTS US and the WORK WE DO….. Someday I hope someone in power will realize that and understand that 79% of the federal workforce DOES NOT need to work in the DC area. We can fundamentally change DC by simply relocating federal employees to areas of the country with lower costs of living. Think about that!

The other funny part of this story involves Robert C. Byrd, the distinguished and honorable Senator from West Virginia (RIP).

He wanted to move the FBI to West Virginia, to the aptly named Robert C. Byrd FBI complex. He failed of course...

Well, he partially failed. He got part of the FBI...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Criminal_Justice...

Clarksburg's FBI facility was the first of the major Federal complexes to be built under Byrd's leadership as chairman of the appropriations committee.[3] In West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, Byrd helped bring ten federal facilities that employed more than 3,200 people.[7] None of these facilities are named for him, however.[1]

None of you know the funny back story.

In the early part of this century I got a request for an estimate to move organizations so a new FBI HQ could be built. People got excited, estimates were made, timelines were created. Then it died.

In 2007, the same request, the same outcome. Of course a few more people, a lot more money, a lot more smoke without fire.

In 2009... this evolution began. GSA drilled core samples at their warehouse in Springfield because those giant warehouses were heated by oil radiators built into the concrete floors and over decades while the oil was never changed, they had to keep adding to it. A lot of people believed early batches of oil contained PCBs. Never saw the report; but lots of rumors about a superfund site.

In any event, I walked away in 2013 convinced that this time it might happen. Of course as the years passed, my certainty declined.

And now....bwahahahahahaha. Some guy like me will start the process all over again in 2021.

Trump always said: "Walk away from a bad deal," and this one was rotten to the core.

I'd bet a 100 federal contractors already had their side deals signed to give them huge profits from the deal.

>A contingent of some 500 staff would remain in DC at a small office to serve the Director and leadership who are required to brief congress

At Quantico..where the training academy and huge crime lab are and more..A NO Brainer..and a Very Secure facility. Guarded by US Marines..40 miles from DC.. "FBI Grand Central Station.." And Agents would enjoy living in.."Fredericksburg"..10-25 miles away MUCHO More then NOVA..! Big 4 BR homes..Brand New..! 350K..!!

DAJAX WTH ??..Sense Makes NO Sense..Till The FBI HQ Comes to "Q" Town..

$2 Billion seems like a lot of money for a building of any size. How did they arrive t that number?

Freedom 2020 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why oh Dear G@d why does the FBI need a head
> quarters in the National Capital Region?????
> Please remind me what century this is? Oh yeah
> it's the F@c#ing 21st century. Trump just missed
> an EPIC opportunity to create jobs in the very
> region he promised to help. He and Mike Pence
> could have moved the entire FBI headquarters to
> Indianapolis and saved the American tax payer big
> $$$$$$.
>
> The article stated there are about 9,500 employees
> in the FBI HQ. What would the economic impact of
> moving 9,000 of those employess to Indiana be on
> that state? Lets just make a conservative
> estimated guess of the salary of the employees
> working at the FBI HQ. Lets say $90,000 (Roughly a
> GS-13 base pay). Multiply that by 9000 employees
> and Mike Pence could have added 810 million bucks
> to the economy of Indiana.
>
> How could have moving the FBI HQ to Indiana saved
> us money. GSA rates in that state are much much
> lower than rates in the NCR. Moving staff out of
> the NCR also improves security as cheap land can
> be bought and developed to meet the toughest
> security standards vs trying to shoe horn into a
> site. It's always easier and cheaper to develop an
> empty field. Don't forget no more DC COLA!
>
> Then there is the quality of life for the
> employees who would have a much lower cost of
> living and let’s not forget the commute! A
> contingent of some 500 staff would remain in DC at
> a small office to serve the Director and
> leadership who are required to brief congress.
> Hell, you could merge the DC SAC office with HQ
> and save even more money!!!! Bottom line I’m
> sick and tired of reading about STUPIDITY. WE DO
> NOT NEED PEOPLE CONCENTRATED IN THE NCR!! WE HAVE
> TECHNOLOGY THAT CONNECTS US and the WORK WE
> DO….. Someday I hope someone in power will
> realize that and understand that 79% of the
> federal workforce DOES NOT need to work in the DC
> area. We can fundamentally change DC by simply
> relocating federal employees to areas of the
> country with lower costs of living. Think about
> that!

You obviously have not dealt with the FBI employees at CJIS (in BFE Clarksburg WVA). They are a nice bunch of folks but not exactly the cream of the crop. Furthermore, employees are not going to want to pack up and move to Indianpolis or some other god-forsaken hell-hole to say nothing of contractors. The expertise is here in the DC area: this is where the people are. Quantico is questionable but might work, who knows.

There's already the WFO in Manassass, maybe some surrounding land is available.

It could have been built in North Dakota for Cheaper!!

GSA has always had problems controlling costs and managing budgets. With their conscious decision to build monuments rather than functional work space and use new construction as a lab for experimental renewable technologies their building costs have become unaffordable. Strip out the renewables and gold plated building standards that drive up costs and the GOP controlled congress will probably approve appropriations for the project.

They should put an FBI office in SE DC in fact I am going to call My congressperson right now

The St. Elizabeth property which was planned to be the headquarters of DHS is mostly empty. The FBI could move there. It has plenty of land for the building to be set back from the public streets.

> Gerry Connolly wasted no time weighing in:
>
> “Reports that the federal government is pulling
> the plug on a new FBI headquarters reveals
> insurmountable Trump conflicts with GSA, FBI, and
> Vornado,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said
> Monday night, referring to Vornado Realty Trust.
> “This is devastating news. Conflicts have
> consequences.”

When you are a giant drama queen fag like Gerry, everything is devastating news.

I have a vague hunch that this project is not dead, just a rather loud statement from Congress for GSA to reevaluate their expectations and vision for the project. Look for the project to re-emerge as a project at Quantico using a Silver LEED building standard with many of energy efficiency measures that have extremely long payback terms stripped from the project. These changes may cut as much as $75 million from the price tag which will make the cost more tolerable to Congress.

Pronto Tonto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The other funny part of this story involves Robert
> C. Byrd, the distinguished and honorable Senator
> from West Virginia (RIP).
>
> He wanted to move the FBI to West Virginia, to the
> aptly named Robert C. Byrd FBI complex. He failed
> of course...
>
> Well, he partially failed. He got part of the
> FBI...
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Criminal_Justice
> ...
>
> Clarksburg's FBI facility was the first of the
> major Federal complexes to be built under Byrd's
> leadership as chairman of the appropriations
> committee.[3] In West Virginia's Eastern
> Panhandle, Byrd helped bring ten federal
> facilities that employed more than 3,200
> people.[7] None of these facilities are named for
> him, however.[1]

I seem to remember black employees bitching up a storm because if they moved from DC to Clarksburg there weren't enough minority residents around to keep
them happy. In other words, if their kids act like hood rats in Clarksburg
they will get their asses kicked.

Flashback. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pronto Tonto Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The other funny part of this story involves
> Robert
> > C. Byrd, the distinguished and honorable
> Senator
> > from West Virginia (RIP).
> >
> > He wanted to move the FBI to West Virginia, to
> the
> > aptly named Robert C. Byrd FBI complex. He
> failed
> > of course...
> >
> > Well, he partially failed. He got part of the
> > FBI...
> >
> >
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Criminal_Justice
>
> > ...
> >
> > Clarksburg's FBI facility was the first of the
> > major Federal complexes to be built under
> Byrd's
> > leadership as chairman of the appropriations
> > committee.[3] In West Virginia's Eastern
> > Panhandle, Byrd helped bring ten federal
> > facilities that employed more than 3,200
> > people.[7] None of these facilities are named
> for
> > him, however.[1]
>
> I seem to remember black employees bitching up a
> storm because if they moved from DC to Clarksburg
> there weren't enough minority residents around to
> keep
> them happy. In other words, if their kids act like
> hood rats in Clarksburg
> they will get their asses kicked.


Clarksburg is full of white trash and niggers. However, Bridgeport which borders Clarksburg, is a rather nice upper middle class area. So basically there is a place for anyone in the region.

Inquisitive One Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GSA has always had problems controlling costs and
> managing budgets. With their conscious decision to
> build monuments rather than functional work space
> and use new construction as a lab for experimental
> renewable technologies their building costs have
> become unaffordable. Strip out the renewables and
> gold plated building standards that drive up costs
> and the GOP controlled congress will probably
> approve appropriations for the project.

The GSA's investment in architecture has paid off though. Previously in the 70s and 80s, the GSA built boring concrete boxes that looked like bunkers. What's wrong with some civic pride as expressed in our civic spaces? Beautiful buildings are worth the investment.

Urban Designer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Inquisitive One Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > GSA has always had problems controlling costs
> and
> > managing budgets. With their conscious decision
> to
> > build monuments rather than functional work
> space
> > and use new construction as a lab for
> experimental
> > renewable technologies their building costs
> have
> > become unaffordable. Strip out the renewables
> and
> > gold plated building standards that drive up
> costs
> > and the GOP controlled congress will probably
> > approve appropriations for the project.
>
> The GSA's investment in architecture has paid off
> though. Previously in the 70s and 80s, the GSA
> built boring concrete boxes that looked like
> bunkers. What's wrong with some civic pride as
> expressed in our civic spaces? Beautiful buildings
> are worth the investment.


Architecture and construction types requires judgment in order to be cost effective, particularly at a time in which public funds for infrastructure is very scarce. GSA far too many times comes up short on judgment. For example, they built a Federal building in Phoenix that had an all glass atrium. The cost to cool that building is so expensive that GSA has trouble paying for it and has detracted from the maintenance of the building over the years. Decisions such as this is scattered throughout the history of the GSA.

To be close to a Metro.. Who The Hell rides Metro that works for the FBI..That don't carry a gun..??

The Janitors Maybe..and they make plenty enough to afford a brand new 350 K house in..Fredericksburg! LOL

F Metro..!! They will quit if they have to carry a Flash Light, Gas Mask, MRE's,Rescue Rope, and Traffic Cones to ride Metro to work ..

DAJAX "Q Town USMC" ..The only Choice and The FBI will love Fredericksburg and being guarded by US Marines.!!

Obama Wanted FBI In Maryland Wrote:
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> To be close to a Metro.. Who The Hell rides Metro
> that works for the FBI..That don't carry a gun..??

It's not a field office. Most of the people who work at there at the FBI HQ aren't agents. The people doing the real gun-carrying law enforcement work are assigned to field offices.

Them G-Men with the Thompson..and the .38's cutting a bullet in half hitting a axe..hitting 2 targets with one bullet ??

WE the People Demand that where ever the FBI HQ Goes..The Show Must Go On!!

DAJAX

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-dc-area-demise-of-fbi-plan-means-a-lot-of-time-and-energy-wasted/2017/07/11/c11c7cba-6632-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_fbi-headquarters-1145am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0124c2fb5d04

Tough Shit..! Time and Money wasted..The FBI building falling apart..hell they just built it..In My Time..LOL..

DAJAX