NOTE: Just before press time, we received the news from GSA that the decision on relocation of the FBI would be delayed indefinitely.
Fred Wine, president of Quantum Companies, the company that owns Beltway Plaza, assured the city council at a March 16 worksession that the mall is doing “extremely well” in spite of the delayed decision on the site of the new FBI headquarters. When asked by Councilmember Judith Davis what the company’s “Plan B” was if the FBI building does not get constructed in Greenbelt, Wine opined, “Our piece of property in that [Beltway Plaza] location is great. We always think about doing better things with it, but it’s not always so easy…We have been sort of thinking the FBI would be a really good motivator, but we’re prepared to think about it without [the headquarters].”
Davis said she doesn’t think it’s likely the development will happen anytime soon. “My personal opinion is it’s never happening, to be perfectly honest with you,” Davis said, “not until the next four years are done.” Mayor Emmett Jordan immediately disagreed with Davis, although he said he is “greatly frustrated” with the General Services Administration (GSA) indecision on the headquarters site. “I still think we have the best site [for the building] and there’s a strong possibility [the FBI] will still come,” Jordan said. “My thinking is the city and the property owners need to be prepared for that, so I strongly think we should be putting our heads together to put some plans in place. “If the announcement [that the GSA has chosen Greenbelt] happens, everything will sort of move so quickly, I’m concerned that the city and our neighbors should be well-prepared.”
The GSA’s decision on the site for the $2 billion construction project was delayed until March in October of 2016 and then delayed again on March 10 as the GSA waits for congressional funding. Wine said that he still hopes the GSA will choose Greenbelt. “Every night I go to bed and pray, I say ‘FBI,’” he said, drawing laughs from councilmembers. “I mean we want it as much as anybody.” Click here for more on this story.