6,400 military workers headed to Alexandria

By William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer 9/30/08

About 6,400 workers will be located on a currently undeveloped site in Alexandria, and not on a cluster of federal warehouses in Springfield well-served by transit, the Army announced Monday, infuriating local officials who say the military has rejected a prime land-use opportunity.

Army officials settled on the Mark Center off Seminary Road, owned by Duke Realty. The site will cost as much as $1 billion to develop and can be up and running in three years, Assistant U.S. Army Secretary Keith Eastin told The Examiner.

The jobs are part of the Washington Headquarters Services, a support organization under the Department of Defense, and were the only remaining portion of the 19,000 defense personnel headed to Fort Belvoir by 2011 yet to find a home. The move is mandated by Congress’ 2005 Base Realignment and Closure orders.

Several sites within and outside Belvoir, including the 70-acre plot of warehouses in Fairfax County owned by the General Services Administration, the government’s property and contracting arm, were also finalists for the workers.

Eastin said the decision will allow the headquarters services to leave leased space, much of it in Crystal City, that costs about $2 million a month to occupy. By comparison, he said the Springfield site couldn’t be filled until June 2014, far past the BRAC deadline.

“We considered in this competition the best value to the government,” he said. “And this is easily, by many millions of dollars, the least expensive site and the one that can be built early and get our people out of leased space fast.”

The Mark Center has little access to mass transit, however. The announcement sparked near-instant recriminations from Fairfax County officials, who have long dreamed of bulldozing the warehouses and redeveloping the land, which sits near both Virginia Railway Express and Metro’s Blue line terminus of Franconia-Springfield.

They worry the lack of transit around the Mark Center would add thousands of new rush-hour commuters throughout the region, many of whom live south of Fairfax.

“Now we’re left with a warehouse next to a Metro station and 6,000 or 7,000 people left with no transit access,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay, who represents Fairfax’s Lee District.

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, who doubted the now-vacant Mark Center could be up and running by 2011, called it “the worst answer.”

The reaction wasn’t all negative. Rep. Thomas Davis III, R–District 11th, called the decision “a huge victory for Northern Virginia commuters,” because the jobs were originally clustered with the others at Fort Belvoir.

Duke Realty Senior Vice President Peter Scholz said the firm plans to build a transportation center that will offer an integrated location for commuter buses, car pooling and slugging.

“The facility will have a well-situated focal point where all these transit-oriented uses will originate from,” he said.
A groundbreaking is expected in early 2009. Under BRAC’s provisions, the site will need to become part of Fort Belvoir.

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