General Services Administration picks Frederick County for site of new FBI records complex

The General Services Administration (GSA) mid-Atlantic Region has purchased a site in Frederick County to construct the FBI’s new 256,000-square-foot Central Records Complex.

The federal agency paid $4.75 million for a 59-acre site off U.S. 50 where it plans to build a $109 million facility where more than 440 employees would work. 

The new facility would streamline the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s worldwide records management. “The centralization of FBI records consolidates records from 265 current locations into a single facility,” Joanna Rosato, regional commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service in the mid-Atlantic Region, said in a statement.  “The CRC will provide the infrastructure and technology for the FBI to continue to digitize records on demand.”

The site’s purchase price includes proffered road construction by the owner, Arcadia Communities,  to create a new Independence Drive to access the site. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) compliant secured facility with environmentally conditioned, fire-protected space will provide records storage, material handling and operational support areas.

The site at 2117 Millwood Pike also would support a visitor screening center, truck screening facility, guard booth, and surface parking lot.

The FBI also is considering three sites, including one in Springfield, for the relocation of its headquarters building,  which would bring 11,000 jobs. In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has reportedly offered about $120 million towards improvements in Springfield plus land that could accommodate federal facilities that would need to be relocated to the Springfield site, along with  the headquarters, now located in Washington, D.C. 

Maryland also is in the running. It has offered a reported $317 million in state and local funds for road, transit and infrastructure improvements should the FBI select a site in Greenbelt and $255 million for a site in Landover.