The Public Broadcasting Service will be moving their headquarters to Crystal City from Alexandria.
The county of Arlington couldn’t resist crowing about the move in a press release, boasting they’d be moving into the “heart of newly-revitalized Crystal City.” Yet beneath the glowing news about “one of America’s preeminent places for living, visiting and doing business,” there’s a less rosy reality. PBS will be moving into some of the 1.4 million square feet vacated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is moving to its new headquarters.
Crystal City developer Charles E. Smith has only filled about a quarter of the former U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices. Getting PBS to move to what has historically been office space occupied by the government and affiliated corporations was described in the Post article as a “huge coup,” perhaps indicating $40 million spent by Smith to make Crystal City more urban by “add signs, make streets two-way, renovate offices and build street-level shops and restaurants that serve a variety of food” is paying off.
The offices in question were once eyed as a headquarters space for the Homeland Security Department, which is now tucked away on the campus of the Naval Security Center on Nebraska Avenue near American University.