CBP to consolidate IT offices

Customs and Border Protection is preparing to move thousands of its IT workers in the Washington, D.C., area to a centralized campus facility in Northern Virginia.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors said in a March 22 statement that it is working with American Real Estate Partners to finalize a 15-year lease with the General Services Administration for CBP's occupation of 445,000 square feet of office space at an office building in Ashburn, Va.

The lease, said the board, will consolidate CBP's Northern Virginia OIT offices, bringing 3,700 CBP positions to the location, including engineers, technicians, scientists and support personnel by 2020.

CBP referred questions to the General Services Administration.

On March 26, a GSA spokeswoman confirmed in an email to FCW the agency was engaged in a procurement for CBP OIT office space, but declined to confirm the site selection since a contract hasn't yet been awarded.

The county board said in reaching a lease agreement with GSA, the site met with the agency's requirement for accessibility to mass transit. The building, which had been the home of long-distance provider MCI, is near new construction of an extension of the Washington-area metropolitan subway system.

It said the current owner of the property will make $179 million in improvements to the facility, including building out existing office space, as well as adding a new wing. Those improvements, as well as the extension of the subway, said the board, are slated to be completed in time for the agency's move.