HUD Moving HQ To Alexandria, Displacing Another Agency
The federal government has found a new home for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
After more than 50 years occupying a massive federally owned building in Southwest D.C., the agency plans to move to Alexandria, taking over the leased headquarters of the National Science Foundation, federal officials announced Wednesday morning.
“It's time for a change,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said at the press conference, held at the NSF building at 2451 Eisenhower Ave. in Alexandria.
“And as you see here today, this announcement underscores a cross-government partnership to use federal spaces and taxpayer dollars efficiently, ensuring that all buildings are being properly utilized.”
A new home for the NSF and its more than 1,800 employees hasn't been announced.
Just before the event began, NSF employees started chanting the agency's acronym as officials escorted reporters to another room for the press conference. In that room, the NSF flag was pushed to the side to make way for a lectern bracketed by an American flag and a HUD flag.
The General Services Administration plans to work with the agency to look for its new headquarters, likely “dusting off” some of the options it presented to HUD, GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters said at the press conference.
NSF declined a request for comment.
“Today marks an important and exciting new chapter for HUD, GSA and the American taxpayer, and I think the state of Virginia as well,” Peters said.
The move would relocate HUD’s more than 2,700 employees while reducing HUD’s footprint by about 40% from its 1.1M SF office at the brutalist Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in D.C.
No timeline was given for the agency transition, but Peters said it would move “as quickly as possible” but in “manner that isn't disruptive to the current tenants.”
“This is really aligned with the mission and the vision that we had when we came into GSA a couple months ago,” Peters said, calling it the “first major agency headquarter relocation in the Trump administration’s effort to rightsize our federal real estate portfolio.”
Peters and Turner said HUD’s headquarters in D.C. is deteriorating and unsafe for employees and that the move represented a commitment to HUD’s mission and workforce.
Peters called the Weaver Building’s condition “embarrassing,” and Turner highlighted the building’s “questionable” air quality, “nearly unstoppable” leaks, and broken elevator banks.
In response to a question about the selection of Virginia for the headquarters rather than Maryland, which has historically received less government investment than its neighbors, Peters said the GSA looked “all over the DMV” before settling on Alexandria.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined the press conference to celebrate the move, which he said speaks to the state's position as a “magnet” for job growth.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, a union representing NSF employees, issued a statement Tuesday opposing the headquarters transfer.
It said the union was told that the new headquarters would include multiple new amenities for Turner and his staff, including a dedicated executive suite for the secretary, a new executive dining room, five parking spaces for Turner’s five cars, and a potential gym for the secretary and his family.
“While Secretary Turner and his staff are busy enjoying private dining and a custom gym, NSF employees are being displaced with no plan, no communication, and no respect,” the letter says.
At the press conference, Turner called the claims “ridiculous” and “not true.”
The NSF’s two-tower headquarters was delivered in 2017 in the middle of Alexandria’s Hoffman Town Center. The building is owned by Affinius Capital, which developed it in partnership with Lowe Enterprises and signed the government to a lease through 2032, the Washington Business Journal reported.
HUD has been housed at the 1.1M SF Weaver Federal Building since 1968. In April, the agency announced it was seeking a new home and that its headquarters was slated for “accelerated disposition.”
It’s one of a cluster of federal buildings in Southwest D.C. that the GSA intends to offload, including the Department of Energy’s 1.8M SF Forrestal Building, the GSA’s 845K SF Regional Office Building and the 1.2M SF Cohen Building, which the U.S. Agency for Global Media plans to depart.
Peters said the timing of the HUD disposal depends in part on how quickly it can get the HUD employees out of the building and deciding what the best future use for the building would be.
D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert provided a statement to Bisnow after publication saying “We all want a strong and beautiful Nation’s Capital — but that requires a committed federal partner.”
“We call on our federal partners to engage with us on a comprehensive strategy that pauses the relocation of agencies and plans for moves that maximize the benefit to both the federal government and the District,” she added. “The District is ready to work with GSA on the Weaver building to ensure we deliver a project that creates a thriving new neighborhood.”
UPDATE, JUNE 25, 7:15 P.M. ET: This article was updated to include a statement from D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert.
