Office owners with large blocks of vacant space in Northern Virginia have a new opportunity to land a federal government tenant.

The General Services Administration Friday released a pre-solicitation seeking a 20-year lease for between 210K SF and 252K SF of office space in Northern Virginia.

The pre-solicitation didn't name the agency it is seeking space for, and a GSA spokesperson declined to comment. Two government leasing sources tell Bisnow the pre-solicitation is for a State Department office that is currently housed at 1800 North Kent St. in Rosslyn.

The office building at 1800 North Kent, built in 1969, is owned by San Francisco-based Bristol Group, property records show. The building, fully occupied by the GSA, is one of the State Department's 19 D.C.-area offices, according to the department's website.

The GSA pre-solicitation requires that landlords submitting offers be able to house the agency in contiguous space in one building, that the building be within a half-mile of a Metro station and that the building can accommodate security requirements for the office space and the parking garage.

The pre-solicitation appears to give an advantage to the department's existing landlord. It said the agency would need $20/SF in tenant allowances to stay in the existing location, and $63.87/SF in allowances for alternative locations. Because of this, the two sources said they expect the GSA will likely choose to renew its existing lease.

The owner of the 50-year-old Rosslyn building, which is not as tall as some of the nearby skyscrapers, could opt to let the GSA leave, redevelop the property and seek to land a private sector tenant that could pay higher rent, one source said. But this course may have been more feasible before the coronavirus and the ongoing economic crisis, which could make it more difficult to finance a redevelopment and land a high-paying tenant.