Assuming the Greenbelt FBI headquarters deal isn’t derailed by opponents who prefer that the agency stay in D.C. or move to Virginia, what happens next?
The site itself is essentially shovel ready. The comprehensive plan and zoning already support the transit-oriented mixed-use, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which controls the Metro-adjacent property, has already authorized negotiating a land sale with the federal government.
WMATA declined to comment and did not make an executive available for an interview, but the agency referred me back to a transit authority board meeting last year where it approved a process if the General Services Administration ended up choosing Greenbelt.
The measures approved at the Sept. 22, 2022, meeting allow WMATA to negotiate a noncompetitive agreement to sell roughly 40 acres to the GSA for the FBI headquarters campus, estimated at the time to weigh in at 2.1 million square feet. Separately, on 14 of the remaining acres, Metro said it would seek a private development partner for roughly 1.3 million square feet of mixed uses — not spelled out, but some mix of residential, retail, hotel, etc. — per the board action report. So, 3.4 million square feet in all across 54 acres.
