A key D.C. Council member Thursday said the District’s desperately needed forensics laboratory will not open on time because of the Fenty administration’s mishandling of the steps leading up to construction.
Council Member Phil Mendelson, chair of the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee, said the apparent decision by the mayor’s staff not to move the Metropolitan Police Department’s First District headquarters into leased space at 225 Virginia Ave. SE has doomed the timeline for the DNA lab.
That’s because the headquarters is housed on the Southwest site, which is to house the $220 million DNA facility, a long-awaited crime-solving tool.
“I’m incredulous,” Mendelson told Lars Etzkorn, director of the Office of Property Management, during a roundtable discussion. “You’re not going to meet your schedule. The lab has to be pushed back for at least another year.”
A general rule of thumb in development, Mendelson said, is one year for design and two for construction, meaning a new site for the First District would take three years to prepare — after an alternative site is chosen.
But the mayor’s team insisted Mendelson’s angst was misguided, and the lab is on schedule to open in late 2011.
“We’re on track,” Etzkorn said. “We’ll have the final design by the end of this year.”
Citing the estimated $150 million price tag, Etzkorn has ruled out Virginia Avenue as a viable home for MPD headquarters as well as several other police branches. But Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office has refused to validate the decision, as it did again Thursday.
“We’re still determining the final use of 225 Virginia Avenue,” a mayoral spokeswoman said.
In the meantime, the District is paying $560,000 a month in rent for the empty building, and will likely owe its owner another $945,000 for design work completed before the contract was terminated last month.
OPM is expected by late October to recommend what to do with Virginia Avenue and where to move the First District. Relocating to a school building in Southwest or to Judiciary Square has not been ruled out, Etzkorn said.
