Photo by wallyg

A D.C. location is not on the General Services Administration’s shortlist for a new FBI headquarters.

Instead, the GSA has selected two sites in Maryland — one at the Greenbelt Metro station, the other at the former Landover Mall — and one in Fairfax County, Va.

“GSA will conduct National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews on each the three sites, which includes opportunities for public comment,” according to a release. “During the NEPA review, GSA will initiate the first of a two-phase Request For Proposal (RFP) seeking qualified developers. The second phase includes the solicitation of development proposals from qualified developers identified in the first phase.”

Mayor Vince Gray, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and several Councilmembers sought to keep the FBI in the city when it leaves the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. According to a report from former D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, the FBI’s move to the suburbs will mean 4,800 fewer jobs in the city. But the redevelopment of the Hoover building will be good news for D.C. regardless, with as much as $36.9 million in net revenue raised.

“There had been prior indications that the District’s site would not be selected for the new FBI headquarters,” Norton said in a release. “Nevertheless, we take considerable comfort in knowing that at last the current FBI headquarters site is now ripe to bring new jobs and revenue to the District of Columbia. The District alone, among those competing, could not lose in the FBI headquarters selection process. Considering the 6.7 acres that will soon become available in the District at the current headquarters site and the groundbreaking of the Trump Hotel at the Old Post Office building last week, the opportunity to redevelop the Hoover Building site is an occasion for joyful anticipation and for getting to work on the further transformation of Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Gray had a similar attitude: “This is kind of a win-win for us.”