Landlords and developers with over 1M SF of office space to lease in D.C. now have a big tenant to court.

The General Services Administration received approval from a House committee Thursday to begin its search for a new, 1.3M SF headquarters for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Washington Business Journal reports.

The SEC is currently housed in Station Place, an office complex next to Union Station owned by Property Group Partners. It has multiple leases expiring between April 2019 and February 2021.

In June, the GSA released a pre-solicitation for the SEC headquarters, seeking a 15-year lease term for between 1.06M SF and 1.27M SF across no more than three buildings. The pre-solicitation says it is looking in the central employment area of Washington, D.C.

Given the lack of existing, vacant 1M SF-plus blocks of office in D.C., the GSA could look to execute a build-to-suit deal on a development site. Some potential options include the sites in NoMa, Capitol Riverfront and Poplar Point that the GSA identified as finalists in the 1M SF, since-stalled Department of Labor headquarters search.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, in addition to approving the SEC search Thursday, also authorized the GSA to seek a lease for up to 266K SF for the Defense Intelligence Agency in suburban Maryland, two State Department leases in D.C. totaling up to 299K SF and a lease for the Patent and Trademark Office in Northern Virginia of up to 191K SF.