Update 2/14/2020: 

The Metro board on Thursday approved the deal to lease the Jackson Graham building to Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and Stonebridge Acquisitions. The aging building will be remodeled and turned into a large office space with retail on the ground floor.

Original:

Ten months after initially putting the building up for lease, Metro has selected a developer for the headquarters it plans to vacate in 2022. The sprawling Jackson Graham Building, which sits right across from the Capital One Arena and has served as the transit agency’s headquarters since 1974, will become a large office building that could house up to 1,500 employees, according to the Washington Post.

Metro chose a joint team of developers, Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and Stonebridge Acquisitions, to purchase a 99-year lease on the building. The Metro board still has to approve the lease, which could happen later this month. Metro received bids from 14 other developers when it listed the lease opportunity in April of last year, according to the transit agency.

The developers plan to gut and remodel the aging building, adding three additional floors, according to a prepared presentation on the deal to be given at this Thursday’s Metro board meeting. The facade will also be transformed to allow more natural light into the building, per the Post. Retail will line the building’s bottom floor, according to the outlet.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has long planned to vacate the Jackson Graham Building, which needs extensive updates and repairs to its heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and plumbing systems, per Metro. It’s been considering a sale since 2002, when Former Mayor Adrian Fenty pushed to make it happen, suggesting the agency should move its headquarters to Anacostia. But several logistical complications stalled those plans, including the matter of the air shafts and rooftop chillers on the roof of the building, which serve the Gallery Place, Judiciary Square, and Archives-Navy Memorial Metro stations. Metro would either have to make a deal to retain control of that equipment, or build new infrastructure to replace it in the event of a sale.

As part of the terms of the 99-year lease, Metro has negotiated maintenance and access covenants for the chillers, per its presentation.

In 2016, Metro began looking into consolidating its office space, and determined as a part of its analysis that completing repairs to the Jackson Graham building would be cost prohibitive for the agency. In July 2018, the Metro board approved an outright sale of the building, but in April of last year, the agency listed the building as a long-term ground lease opportunity. It eventually chose Rockefeller and Stonebridge as its preferred developers for the lease, which could bring in $130 million for Metro over the nearly century-long contract, per the Post.

The transit agency plans to vacate its headquarters by December 2022.

The lease is all part of a larger office consolidation plan by Metro. The agency is letting six leases on buildings in the region expire, and it’s building new offices in New Carrollton and Alexandria. In October 2018, the agency bought a new headquarters in D.C. in the Reporter’s Building right across from the L’Enfant Metro station. That building is still being redeveloped and isn’t in use by the transit agency yet.

Previously:
Metro Board Approves Sale Of Downtown Headquarters
Metro’s New Headquarters Will Be Across The Street From L’Enfant