The District on Wednesday announced it has canceled plans to move the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters and other critical public safety functions into a building in Southeast Washington.
Nine months after signing a 20- year, $6.5 million annual lease on the 421,000-square-foot Washington Star press building, the move to 225 Virginia Ave. is off, said Lars Etzkorn, director of the Office of Property Management. It was to be the site of MPD headquarters, MPD’s 1st District, evidence storage, and violent crimes, narcotics, special investigations and special operations units.
“We have found this deal to be too expensive for the District,” Etzkorn said in a statement. “Fortunately we realized before it was too late that forcing three dissimilar police functions in this building is not cost-effective.”
The decision, several D.C. leaders feared, could further delay delivery of the District’s consolidated forensics laboratory, which is slated to be built at 415 Fourth St. SW, current home of the MPD’s 1st District.
“There is no comprehensive look at how these projects fit together and the implications for timing,” said D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee.
“They’re reacting one piece at a time, and it’s falling apart.”
Said Kristopher Baumann, president of the Fraternal Order of Police: “Two years of work down the drain.”
Perhaps further complicating matters, the D.C. Council, at Mayor Adrian Fenty’s request, last month declared as surplus the current headquarters of MPD’s Special Operations unit at 2301 L St.NW, agreeing to sell the property to developer EastBanc.
Renovating the Virginia Avenue property was expected to cost $100 million. In a recent hearing before the D.C. Council’s government operations committee, Etzkorn mentioned the possibility of phased occupancy as early as the first quarter of 2009.
Council Member Carol Schwartz, government operations chair, said the move made little sense because the city couldn’t possibly provide 600 parking spaces, and “obviously the community was up in arms.”
The property management office is now studying what to do with the Virginia Avenue building, Etzkorn said.
