As of yesterday, Metro was placed among the many city agencies with pricey downtown digs currently being considered for more a affordable address. Mayor Fenty approached Metro yesterday with the idea of selling its eight-story headquarters at 600 5th St. in Northwest and relocating to a new, state-of-the-art facility at the Anacostia Metro station. Fenty and city officials say that such a move would provide an economic boon to both the downtown and Southeast areas, the former through commercial development, and the latter through what we like to call the “Reeves Center Redevelopment Model.”

Under the deal, the District government would gain the rights to sell the building, which city officials estimate could fetch at least $68 million. The city would then pay for construction of a new building to house Metro’s 1,320 downtown employees. To sweeten the deal, the city has offered Metro an extra $40 million to build a pedestrian tunnel between Gallery Place and Metro Center.

A tunnel between these two adjacent stations has been discussed for years, but money for the project has never been budgeted. The tunnel would connect of all five rail lines in one central location, allowing riders to transfer from the Green or Yellow Line to the Orange or Blue Line with a short walk between the stations, rather than a long wait for a Red Line train or an unnecessary loop though L’Enfant station.

Leaving aside our skepticism of Reeves-style redevelopment, the tunnel sounds like a good idea whose time has come. However, we’re a little worried its approval could create a bad case of Tunnel Envy. Metro riders have been calling for a similar pedestrian tunnel between Farragut North and Farragut West for nearly as long, and though those stations aren’t quite as busy, from a connectivity standpoint, the idea makes just as much sense. In a city that loves to make hay over equal distribution of development benefits, would the outraged Farragut Faithful demand their fair share of subterranean spoils?

Photo by sduffy