[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HEADQUARTERS AT ST.
ELIZABETHS: LOCAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
=======================================================================
(110-90)
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
DECEMBER 12, 2007
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
----------
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COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
JAMES L. OBERSTAR, Minnesota, Chairman
NICK J. RAHALL, II, West Virginia, JOHN L. MICA, Florida
Vice Chair DON YOUNG, Alaska
PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon THOMAS E. PETRI, Wisconsin
JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee
Columbia WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland
JERROLD NADLER, New York VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan
CORRINE BROWN, Florida STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio
BOB FILNER, California RICHARD H. BAKER, Louisiana
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey
GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi JERRY MORAN, Kansas
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland GARY G. MILLER, California
ELLEN O. TAUSCHER, California ROBIN HAYES, North Carolina
LEONARD L. BOSWELL, Iowa HENRY E. BROWN, Jr., South
TIM HOLDEN, Pennsylvania Carolina
BRIAN BAIRD, Washington TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON, Illinois
RICK LARSEN, Washington TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania
MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts SAM GRAVES, Missouri
JULIA CARSON, Indiana BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania
TIMOTHY H. BISHOP, New York JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
BRIAN HIGGINS, New York Virginia
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JIM GERLACH, Pennsylvania
JOHN T. SALAZAR, Colorado MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois TED POE, Texas
DORIS O. MATSUI, California DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington
NICK LAMPSON, Texas CONNIE MACK, Florida
ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio JOHN R. `RANDY' KUHL, Jr., New
MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii York
BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa LYNN A WESTMORELAND, Georgia
JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, Jr.,
TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota Louisiana
HEATH SHULER, North Carolina JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio
MICHAEL A. ACURI, New York CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona THELMA D. DRAKE, Virginia
CHRISTOPHER P. CARNEY, Pennsylvania MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma
JOHN J. HALL, New York VERN BUCHANAN, Florida
STEVE KAGEN, Wisconsin
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
JERRY McNERNEY, California
LAURA A. RICHARDSON, California
(ii)
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency
Management
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of Columbia, Chairwoman
MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine SAM GRAVES, Missouri
JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania
MICHAEL A. ARCURI, New York SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
CHRISTOPHER P. CARNEY, Virginia
Pennsylvania, Vice Chair CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania
TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota JOHN R. `RANDY' KUHL, Jr., New
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee York
JAMES L. OBERSTAR, Minnesota JOHN L. MICA, Florida
(Ex Officio) (Ex Officio)
(iii)
CONTENTS
Page
Summary of Subject Matter........................................ vi
TESTIMONY
Abdur-Rahman, Dawud, Director, Portfolio Management Division,
National Capital Region, General Services Administration....... 4
Gay, Rear Admiral Earl, U.S. Navy, Commandant, Naval District
Washington, Washington Navy Yard............................... 4
Hopkins, Jr., Albert, President and CEO, Anacostia Economic
Development Corporation........................................ 23
Imperato, John, Director, Corporate Information Management,
Washington Navy Yard........................................... 4
James, Robert, President, Ward 8 Business Council................ 23
Lang, Barbara, CEO, D.C. Chamber of Commerce..................... 23
Pannell, Philip, Executive Director, Anacostia Coordinating
Council........................................................ 23
Voudrie, Stan, Principal, Four Points, LLC....................... 23
Winstead, David, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, General
Services Administration........................................ 4
PREPARED STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Graves, Hon. Sam, of Missouri.................................... 42
Norton, Hon. Eleanor Holmes, of the District of Columbia......... 46
Oberstar, Hon. James L., of Minnesota............................ 51
PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED BY WITNESSES
Abdur-Rahman, Dawud.............................................. 52
Gay, Rear Admiral Earl L......................................... 56
Hopkins Jr., Albert R............................................ 60
James, Robert.................................................... 71
Lang, Barbara B.................................................. 73
Pannell, Philip E................................................ 77
Voudrie, Stan.................................................... 79
Winstead, David L................................................ 80
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
HEARING ON THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY HEADQUARTERS AT ST.
ELIZABETH'S: LOCAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
----------
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
House of Representatives,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and
Emergency Management,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
Room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Eleanor
Holmes Norton [Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Ms. Norton. We want to welcome you to today's hearing
entitled the New Federal Headquarters at St. Elizabeth's: Local
Business Opportunities, concerning an unprecedented Federal
development to be located on the federally-owned West Campus of
St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Anacostia in Southeast Washington.
The property is the only significant Federal site in the
District available for Federal development. This construction
will mark the first decision by the Federal Government to place
a Federal agency east of the Anacostia River since the District
was established.
In 1984, Congress authorized the transfer of the St.
Elizabeth's East Campus to the District of Columbia in Public
Law 98-621, and the transfer occurred in 1987. However, the
Federal Government has insisted on retaining the West Campus
because of the savings from building on its own land, because
of the presence of two Metro stations and other public
transportation, and because of the accessibility and proximity
of the site to other Federal agencies in the District.
The Federal Government will break ground next year on its
176 acre West Campus site. The components identified for
consolidation are the DHS Headquarters, Transportation and
Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency
Management Administration and the United States Coast Guard.
An addendum for inclusion in the record follows my written
statement, describing the evolution of the Federal land from
the establishment of St. Elizabeth's as an state of the art
mental institution in 1855, when local government here was in
the exclusive control of the Federal Government, to today.
The General Services Administration and I have always
worked closely with the community and the District Government
concerning planned Federal development here. This cooperation
has been beneficial to local communities. It has been as
beneficial to local communities as to the Federal Government
because Federal construction that brings Federal employees and
Federal business to an area has unfailingly sparked local
retail and commercial development.
For example, the development of the M Street Southeast
neighborhood was an almost exact parallel of Martin Luther King
Jr. Avenue, the main commercial thoroughfare that borders St.
Elizabeth's. Blocks of abandoned federally-owned and blighted
land in the M Street community deterred development for decades
in the adjacent communities. Change could not and did not occur
as long as two vast Federal properties responsible for the
decay, the 66 acre Navy Yard remained an empty relic, an almost
empty relic, and the 57 acre Southeast Federal Center continued
as an unsightly and abandoned brownfield.
When we were able to get a government agency, the Naval Sea
Systems Command, to come to the Navy Yard, M Street almost
spontaneously developed. With the assistance of the Great
Streets Initiative developed by the Williams Administration and
help from officials at the Navy Yard, 5,000 new Federal
employees helped spur retail.
Structural changes and improvements were made to the 8th
Street corridor which had been largely moribund. New
restaurants and amenities that serve local residents and
Federal employees alike resulted from the Federal partnership
with the city, local businesses and residents.
Nevertheless, the adjacent abandoned Southeast Federal
Center property continued to stunt full development until
Congress passed our Southeast Federal Center Act. We have tried
to replicate this Act to benefit other communities here and
elsewhere, but Federal scoring procedures stand in the way.
This hearing continues the process we began shortly after
the Federal Government funded the new DHS headquarters.
In 2006, we held a town meeting where top GSA, Coast Guard
and District officials participated in the standing room only
meeting, taking questions from residents. The GSA has continued
to assure community participation in countless meetings,
working with Ward 8 residents by informing them of developments
and getting feedback to assist Federal authorities in making
decisions.
The project has been well received by community residents
who are sick of decades of blight and decay from the huge
abandoned Federal property in their midst and are hopeful that
the new headquarters will help spur retail and other efforts
underway to secure increased commercial development.
A few months ago, GSA and I and one of our witnesses today
co-sponsored a small business forum on opportunities that will
become available because of the new headquarters project.
This is the first Congressional hearing on the new
headquarters development aside from the prescribed authorizing
and appropriation proceedings. This hearing is intentionally
devoted to local interests and concerns in light of the
challenges that must be carefully thought through by all
concerned regarding the unprecedented nature of this project.
Witnesses representing Ward 8 and local business leaders
will testify. Mayor Fenty was invited, but he was unavailable.
The Federal Government is crossing the Anacostia with one
of its most prestigious and important agencies at a time when
Wards 7 and 8 are seeking to become destination points like the
rest of the District. The city is looking at the option of
building a soccer stadium for D.C.'s champion soccer team, D.C.
United, on the Poplar Point site, authorized for transfer to
the District last year by our bill, Public Law 109-396.
Last Friday, Giant opened the largest supermarket in the
region in the Camp Simms section of Ward 8, using Federal new
market tax credits.
The new headquarters carries significant promise if local
residents and businesses and the Federal and local governments
work and plan closely together. We focus particularly on local
concerns today because D.C. residents and businesses,
particularly those in Ward 8, alone will have to live with the
headquarters 24-7.
A continuing complaint of Ward 8 residents has long been
that despite hosting the greatest number of housing starts in
the District, even the most basic retail has not followed the
ward's growing population.
We cannot afford to assume that the retail and commercial
development that the community most needs and desires will
arrive spontaneously in part because prime parts of the
headquarters property will be enclosed by a long wall that must
be preserved because of its historic significance.
Consequently, large portions of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue
will continue to be unavailable for the local retail activity
that usually follows Federal workers.
It is important for all concerned to begin assessing now
where development is likely to occur and what sort of
development should be most encouraged. Special attention to the
long-neglected community concerns and close cooperation between
D.C. and the Federal Government will be needed to assure that
the needed high quality retail and other businesses are
attracted in a manner consistent with maximizing the potential
generated by the presence of 14,000 Federal employees.
There is no magic formula for success, but the pieces
appear to be aligned: a community that has thought long and
hard about economic development in the ward, a major Federal
headquarters coming to the neighborhood at St. Elizabeth's,
development opportunities from the Federal land transfer of the
Poplar Point site and a long tradition of Federal and local
collaboration to assure mutual benefit. If all roll up their
collective sleeves to get the job done together, we will not
fail.
However, an indispensable step for all concerned should be
to look to the community for advice and counsel. We continue
that process with today's hearing.
Congressman Kuhl, do you have any statement you would like
to make?
Thank you very much.
Now, let us move to our first panel of witnesses. Would you
begin? Let's go from Mr. Winstead by identifying yourself and
the next witness identify himself and so forth.
TESTIMONY OF DAVID WINSTEAD, COMMISSIONER, PUBLIC BUILDINGS
SERVICE, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION; DAWUD ABDUR-RAHMAN,
DIRECTOR, PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT DIVISION, NATIONAL CAPITAL
REGION, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION; REAR ADMIRAL EARL GAY,
U.S. NAVY, COMMANDANT, NAVAL DISTRICT WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON
NAVY YARD; JOHN IMPERATO, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT, WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
Mr. Winstead. Madam Chairman, I am David Winstead,
Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at GSA.
Congressman Dent and Members of the Committee, I am very,
very pleased to be here today.
I think, Madam Chair, your overview on the partnership
which GSA has had with the National Capital Region and with
many communities where a lot of our development projects have
impacted is very, very important, and I look forward to
listening to the witnesses here today, the leadership that we
have with the community and the Navy and other clients.
I am also joined today with, as you know, Dawud, who is our
Development Director for the project as well as Bart Bush, the
Assistant Regional Administrator, and Tony Costa, my Deputy
Administrator.
In my testimony today, Madam Chair, I also want to thank
you for your leadership in the September 18th business forum
that I understand went very, very well, and I think it is
indicative of your engagement in projects that are very
important for Federal tenants in the National Capital Region as
well as communities that you represent.
I would like to address several issues today: the project
itself, GSA's, I think, excellent track record in encouraging
economic development of neighborhoods and under-served
neighborhoods across this Country and locally here in the
District, the economic impact of Federal spending which we know
is substantial in the National Capital Region as well as my
personal commitment and that of the Administrator and the
Regional Administrator here at NCR and ARA in terms of this
project at St. Elizabeth's.
First, the project itself: GSA is now preparing, as you
know, a master plan for the development of a headquarters
facility for DHS at St. Elizabeth's West Campus. Creating such
a headquarters helps continue consolidation of this large,
diverse Federal agency into one increasingly effective and
cohesive cabinet department.
DHS is proposing to locate, as you mentioned, up to 14,000
of its employees at St. Elizabeth's, bringing together these
components of the Department that must be assembled to respond
quickly to national emergencies. At 175 acres, the St.
Elizabeth's West Campus is large enough to accommodate DHS'
needs as well as to provide 100 foot setback for the entire
campus, a very difficult requirement to fulfill for any agency
of this size in any urban setting.
Consolidation of the agency components on Government-owned
land will offer a substantial savings to the American people
and taxpayers over the alternative of consolidating in leased
space and replacing currently leased space in over 22 locations
around the National Capital Region.
Finally, St. Elizabeth's is a National Historic Landmark
and the development of DHS headquarters there offers a unique
opportunity to restore many of the historic features of the
campus that have badly deteriorated over time. So, making this
project a success is important for our Nation as well as for
the National Capital Region.
Regarding the National Historic Landmark, just as a
reference, I am meeting tomorrow afternoon with Dick Moe, who
is President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation,
to further dialogue with the leadership of the historic
preservation community.
I would like to share with you today, based on discussions
with the Committee and counsel, some examples of GSA's success
in working with local communities on a large scale like St.
Elizabeth's and the economic benefit that accrues to areas.
You talked at great length about the Southeast Federal
Center and your leadership in that legislation.
Through GSA's Public Buildings Service's Good Neighbor
Program, we seek to basically conduct our real estate
activities and decisions to, number one, obviously, meet our
client agency's needs, and we are doing a lot more in terms of
long term planning about space consolidation and efficiency of
housing of those clients but also to support, which is the
topic of this panel, the communities that we serve and the
communities in which these jobs are located and the economic
impact and other impositions such as transportation are felt.
We engaged with local communities early in the process,
soliciting public input--this panel today will help in that
regard--select locations and utilizing designs that engage
community goals and priorities and support community economic
development goals.
GSA has been particularly active in working across the
Country and with the District Government to find opportunities
to build or lease space in under-served communities. Towards
this end, GSA is currently engaged in developing several new
projects.
The Denver Federal Center in Colorado is a great case of
almost 3.9 million square feet that will be housed in Denver
and served by a new transit line that has been routed to serve
that Federal installation. It will be a first class Federal
campus.
In addition, obviously, here in the National Capital
Region, as you well know, Madam Chair, the FDA is under a huge
three million square foot expansion to a campus in White Oak,
Maryland. Again, in that regard, as in the case of St.
Elizabeth's, our engagement with the community through their
community liaison group, Labquest, has been substantial over
the last five to ten years, and we have sought their support
both in economic development as well as housing needs for new
FDA employees coming to the White Oak campus.
GSA, as you know, donated a portion of White Oak to the
Maryland Department of Transportation for transportation
improvements along New York Avenue, very similar to what we are
doing with the Southeast Federal Center.
In addition, NOMA is another great case where we have now
opened a new headquarters for the Bureau of Tobacco and
Firearms, located on a site purchased from the District of
Columbia, and this project includes 8,000 square feet of retail
and other amenities to serve those Federal tenants at ATF
headquarters.
The Southeast area of Washington, as you also know,
redeveloping the Southeast Federal Center, has been greatly
assisted by the legislation you advanced and also coupled with
the District and the private sector through Forest City in both
the headquarters of the Department of Transportation that we
have now opened as well as a mixed use project of almost two
million square feet and almost 2,800 dwelling units with
400,000 square feet of retail to serve not only DOT employees
but all the other Federal tenants and private sector uses in
that area.
All of these projects are occurring in areas that had not
experienced economic prosperity in this region prior to GSA's
engagement, the Federal need to really spark things and to
provide, obviously, Federal tenancy to meet housing needs of
our clients, and now GSA is poised to do that in Ward 8.
But the economic benefits conveyed by the Federal
Government on urban areas of the District go way beyond just
direct employment. As you know, George Mason University's
Stephen Fuller often articulates the impact of our investments,
Federal investments in the District in terms of employment.
Federal procurement spending has grown from $12 billion in 1990
to $28 billion in the year 2000.
This study of Dr. Fuller's points out that more procurement
dollars are going to be spent each year in the National Capital
Region than any other single State in the Nation. It is
calculated that this investment generates 21 percent
aggregately in the Metropolitan Washington economy, the GNP for
the National Capital Region. So, procurement spending is
responsible directly, Federal spending, for almost 170,000 jobs
in the District of Columbia.
In 2004, GSA joined with the National Trust for Historic
Preservation in a similar partnership to St. Elizabeth's in a
project in Baltimore, in which the net result has been almost
$50 million of impact to the Baltimore regional economy. So it
is an important point to keep in mind, when we consider the
possible economic benefits, these other projects as examples in
terms of development of the St. Elizabeth's West Campus.
For firms doing business with DHS, they will want to locate
nearby. For DHS workers and employees on the campus, they will
want to shop nearby. There will be further development in
neighborhoods.
Our National Capital Region is involved closely. I have
talked to Harriet Tregoning and others. They have engaged
closely with the planning leadership of the District in this
regard.
We will continue to move forward on our plans to relocate
new housing for DHS in Ward 8 and working with the District as
well on adjacency in terms of impact on the East Campus where
they are looking at their zoning authority to encourage office
and residential development on that adjacent campus to ours.
Before I close, I would like to comment just briefly on my
personal commitment to this project. Madam Chair, in about June
of 2006, you and I went up to the Ward 8 neighborhood for a
town hall meeting, and this was just one example of the many
meetings that have been held since, over a dozen that GSA has
held in Anacostia and Congress Heights neighborhoods, as well
as our project director who you will hear from next has been
very, very involved in this effort and will give you more
detail.
Recently, I had an opportunity to talk to Charlene Jarvis
who I knew very well, who is the head of Southeastern
University, and people like that are constantly getting
involved and looking at maybe career training opportunities for
jobs as result of St. Elizabeth's.
So my message is very, very simple, Madam Chair. GSA, as
you noted, as a very important role to serve DHS with this
consolidation, and the result of it will have very profound
impact on the community and the economic interest of Ward 8.
Thank you.
Ms. Norton. I would like to note that the Ranking Member,
Mr. Graves, has come. I know he is going to have leave a markup
later and can't stay throughout this hearing. I want to welcome
him and ask him if he has anything he would like to say at this
point.
Mr. Graves. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity.
I am very interested in this project and actually a couple
of different projects. We were just talking up here too about
the Navy Yard, but I will turn my statement in for the record.
I look forward to hearing what I can from the witnesses and
appreciate you all being here. I am going to pop out for a
markup and then be back, but thank you all for being here
today.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Graves.
Next witness, Mr. Abdur-Rahman.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Madam Chair, Members of the Subcommittee,
my name is Dawud Abdur-Rahman. I serve as Development Director
in the General Services Administration National Capital Region,
and I am working on the preparation of a master plan for the
Department of Homeland Security headquarters complex at the St.
Elizabeth's West Campus.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before you
to supplement the remarks made by Commissioner Winstead
regarding the economic benefits that our project will have for
Washington, D.C. and the Ward 8 neighborhood.
GSA is currently preparing a master plan for this project.
We propose to develop up to 4.5 million square feet of space
and up to 1.8 million square feet of structured parking on the
176 acre St. Elizabeth's West Campus. This development will
include new construction along with the restoration and
modernization of the majority of the existing campus. When
completed, the facility will house up to 14,000 employees.
In my remarks today, I would like to summarize the action
GSA has taken and will take to make St. Elizabeth's West Campus
a valuable and important neighbor in Ward 8.
First, we stopped the rampant and progressive deterioration
of this National Historic Landmark. When GSA assumed custody
and control of the West Campus in 2004, the buildings and
landscape were in deplorable condition.
Holes in the roofs had to be patched. The most historic
building on campus, the Center Building, and the beautiful
Beaux Arts style Hitchcock Hall had both suffered extensive
damage from the leaks in the steam distribution systems. All of
the floors had collapsed in one wing of the Center Building.
Anticipating the ultimate redevelopment of the campus, GSA
invested $13 million in a stabilization program. This work,
most of which was done by Section 8(a) small business
contractors, includes construction, landscaping, security
services and building management.
A total of 40 percent of all contracts issued since late
2004 have been awarded to D.C.-based firms and 60 percent of
the $4 million of work currently underway is being performed by
D.C.-based firms.
Now we are preparing a master plan for the phased
development of the headquarters facility. Congress has already
appropriated funding for the preparation of this document, the
design of the first phase of the project, a headquarters for
the United States Coast Guard and initiating the repair and
replacement of the infrastructure for the entire site.
This fiscal year, 2008, the Administration is requesting
$346 million to fund GSA construction of the Coast Guard
headquarters building and further infrastructure as well as to
begin design work for phase two.
The construction of the DHS headquarters complex will
convey considerable economic benefits to the local community.
Construction costs alone are expected to exceed $3 billion, and
that means a lot of construction jobs and construction site
support services.
Federal acquisition regulations require all Federal
agencies to create as many opportunities as possible for small
businesses to compete as prime contractors on Federal projects
and for large contractors on Federal projects to establish
subcontracting goals for small businesses. In fiscal year 2007,
GSA's Public Buildings Service entered into $240 million in
contracts in this region with small businesses.
We also encourage our construction contractors to
participate in an approved apprenticeship program so that
residents of Ward 8 and other parts of the District will have
the opportunity to be trained for careers in construction
trades.
With up to 14,000 employees on the site, there is a
sizeable potential market for the businesses located nearby. In
addition, contractors doing business with DHS will be tempted
to locate in office space within a short distance of the campus
to facilitate frequent contacts with their client.
In an effort to calculate the potential economic benefits
that this project will generate, GSA utilized a computer model
called the Regional Input-Output Multiplier System, otherwise
known as RIMS II, developed by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
It is used extensively by both the public and private sectors
for such projects as estimating the impacts of military base
closures, airport construction and the development of shopping
malls and sports stadiums.
Using this model, GSA projects that development of St.
Elizabeth's West Campus will generate 26,000 jobs and $931
million in payroll during construction alone. It is also
expected to produce $18 million per year in sales and use taxes
after occupancy occurs.
Some of these benefits are regional in scope. Commissioner
Winstead has already described the significant role that the
District of Columbia can and must play if this project will
generate maximum benefits for the immediate neighborhood. GSA
is working closely with the District Government and with the
neighborhood to push such a coordinated approach forward.
In September, we worked closely with you, Madam Chair, and
the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation to conduct a
business opportunities forum at Matthews Memorial Baptist
Church to explain opportunities that could be generated by our
development. We are already using Ward 8 firms to provide
services for these events.
In November, we briefed Deputy Mayor for Planning and
Economic Development Neil Albert and Planning Director Harriet
Tregoning on our project, and later that month we provided a
tour of the site for Deputy Mayor Albert and City Administrator
Dan Tangherlini. We discussed ways that the St. Elizabeth's
East Campus can be developed to take advantage of the
opportunities posed by the development of the West Campus.
This past Monday, December 10th, we met with James Bunn,
Executive Director of the Ward 8 Business Council, in
Councilman Barry's constituent office to explore how our
project can generate business opportunities for the community.
We are encouraged by the neighborhood's support for our
project, and we look forward to continuing to work with them.
GSA stands ready to continue working with you, Madam Chair,
with the District Government and with the Ward 8 community to
make this project a success.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much.
We will move on to Rear Admiral Gay.
Admiral Gay. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, Madam Chair
Norton and other distinguished Members of the Committee.
I am Rear Admiral Earl Gay, Commandant of the Naval
District Washington, and I am responsible for 18 installations
with the National Capital Region including the Washington Navy
Yard and its Anacostia Annex.
Thank you this morning for this opportunity to discuss the
Washington Navy's Yard's role in community development along
the M Street corridor in Southeast Washington, DC.
For a historical perspective, I brought with me Mr. John
Imperato. Mr. Imperato is my Community Relations Director and
has served in this capacity for the past 16 years. He will
provide you with a broad perspective of BRAC development and
the influence of the Washington Navy Yard on business
development on M Street Southeast, the 8th Street corridor and
Barracks Row.
We look forward to maintaining our close ties within the
community and continuing to support the growth and
revitalization of this great capital city and surrounding
neighborhoods.
Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much.
Mr. Imperato, are you going to answer questions or do you
have separate testimony?
Mr. Imperato. I have submitted testimony for the record,
and I am prepared to answer questions.
Ms. Norton. Well, if you would like to say something before
we proceed.
Mr. Imperato. Just basically, an overview is, in the
nineties, we moved about 5,000 Navy employees to the Navy Yard,
and an additional 5,000 contract personnel came along with them
and brought our population up to about 12,000. The additional
5,000 people provided quite a customer base in the community.
We felt that we should partner with the community to provide
services to these people and benefit the community as a whole.
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much.
We brought you both together and had you testify together
because the Navy Yard is perhaps the most recent example of
what the coming of Federal employees can do if you work closely
with the agency.
Now, what we are most interested in, of course, is the
agency's policy. For example, Mr. Winstead or Mr. Abdur-Rahman,
do you have a development policy quite apart from the policy to
build the agency that incorporates the community?
Mr. Winstead. Madam Chair, GSA policy is to work very, very
closely with all the communities around our major projects, and
we are responsible for pursuing that in ways that include both
our housing needs as well as local goals. In the short term,
these directives acknowledge collaboration needs with local
officials, where to locate, how to design and operate
facilities.
The principals of this neighborhood development program
that we have are basically to locate new lease facilities in
places that support local planning, economic development and
master planning goals as well as to design them to meet
workplace needs and support overall urban design. So we are
focused on the St. Elizabeth's neighborhood in that regard.
Also, renovating Federal properties and the custodianship
we have for over 400 Federal buildings and 2 dozen national
landmarks similar to St. Elizabeth's is a part of that
neighborhood policy.
We are also driven by law under the Federal Urban Land Use
Act of 1949 in that regard to both look at the impact we have
and to guard on the Cooperative Use Act of 1976 as well as the
Public Buildings Amendment Act of 1988. So there are a number.
There are about five or seven laws.
Ms. Norton. What I am trying to find out is whether you
have a policy or goal when you build a Federal facility like
this to open or to encourage public business objectives. We
know that the district has to do with the zoning and the master
plan and the like.
But to encourage businesses to locate around the Federal
development where Federal employees will be, is there a written
policy? Are there goals connected with the GSA's responsibility
to see that the Federal employees are served with some kind of
retail or business in the local neighborhood?
Mr. Winstead. We do, and this neighborhood development and
these policies and the acts that I mentioned require that we do
so.
So, in the case of St. Elizabeth's, not only the business
forum you had, but our close working with the D.C. zoning, with
Harriet Tregoning and others are actually targeted to do that.
It is to make sure that the redevelopment of Martin Luther
King, the great streetscape efforts and to look at densities
being planned for the corridors between the East and West
Campuses, that we look at that in terms of its ability to
handle growth as well as retail, restaurants and other
amenities to serve the employees, the 14,000 employees at
build-out.
Ms. Norton. In my opening statement, I indicated that both
the District and the GSA face a major structural problem that
we did not find in NOMA where all that property has been bought
up and we expect Federal agencies and private business to come.
Amenities are being developed. But there was no wall and, here,
we have an agency that could be walled in.
Now, Federal Law requires, always requires some amenities
in the agency. So you will not find an agency which does not
have amenities. But when you have a wall and you have amenities
provided on the inside, have you considered that if you
provided every amenity you can think of on the inside, there
would be no reason for these 14,000 employees to venture into
the community the way they venture into the downtown community,
the way they venture into NOMA?
Have you considered the structural problem with carrying
out your normal policy of encouraging Federal employees to do
some retail in the neighborhood and therefore retail comes to
the neighborhood because they know there will be this large
number of Federal employees in addition to the residents?
Mr. Winstead. Do you want to add a comment?
Ms. Norton. Yes, Mr. Abdur-Rahman, you are the one that has
been working the project. You are the face of GSA in the
community. If you have thought about this, I would appreciate
anything you would have to say.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Sure. Congresswoman Norton, we have
thought about this on several fronts.
I will start with the issue of the wall. One of the things
that we remind a lot of the planning agencies and even the
community is that DHS is a high security agency, and GSA and
DHS and other agencies follow the interagency security
criteria.
If you have a concentration of Federal agencies, whether it
be FDA or St. Elizabeth's West Campus, there is going to be
some security infrastructure to provide for the protection of
that Federal population. So there would always be this issue of
some level of security.
Ms. Norton. But I haven't even raised the security issue.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Right.
Ms. Norton. We just put that aside. Let me just say this
for the record, so everyone understands what the Department of
Homeland Security has done to us all. If you want to get into
Federal agency today, this has nothing to do with the
Department of Homeland Security. It is area-wide.
Whereas you used to just have to go through whatever is the
contraption that makes sure you are not carrying any bombs, you
now have to show an identification. Now, that is not the
Department of Homeland Security. That is new policy everywhere.
I am going to have a hearing myself on whether that is
necessary.
I had someone from the local B.I.D. on M Street tell me
that he wanted to go to the cafeteria in the new Department of
Transportation. That is a headquarters that we worked, what is
it, well, even before I came to Congress. I have spent a good
deal of my time in Congress, trying to get that headquarters.
Here comes a local resident who runs the bid, and he tells
me that he wanted to have a meeting. Sorry. He wanted to use
the cafeteria. He had to call someone in the Department of
Transportation to come downstairs and get him so that he could
get in to use the cafeteria.
You know this is madness, but this doesn't have to do with
the Department of Homeland Security. This is madness from their
policy.
So I said when I met with him because the B.I.D. is going
to have a forum that we are sponsoring with GSA. I said, well,
suppose I am a taxpayer, and let's say I am taxpayer either
from the District of Columbia or from podunk.
I said, oh, my goodness, thank goodness there is a Federal
building, and I really need to go to the lavatory. Sorry.
I don't know what showing identification means, but I don't
want to hear anything about security and Homeland Security. The
reason I don't want to hear it is that I can't imagine your
security will be any steeper than in the Department of
Transportation.
I said to myself, well, that is interesting. Who is going
to blow up the Department of Transportation? I mean if al Qaeda
is down to the Department of Transportation, then I think they
must have blown up everything else.
But, again, my question was very specifically about the
isolation of Federal employees from the community where retail
has sprung automatically, and my question here has to do with
the wall and whether or not any of you have taken into account
the difficulties raised by having that wall there in the first
place and therefore the need to somehow encourage people that
there is something on the outside, that there is retail on the
outside.
Or, do you plan amenities on the inside and what amenities
do you plan on the inside?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. The next thing that we are trying to do
in that area is, one, as we said in our opening testimony, as
we conducted events, we have sought out local businesses and
contracted with local businesses to provide services for the
events that we have had and in discussion with the Department
of Homeland Security.
I would like to note that the business economic opportunity
forum that we conducted with you in September, the DHS small
business officer was also there also. WE are also talking with
DHS about making available opportunities for local businesses
to provide services into the campus through catering or dry
cleaning or those types of things.
Ms. Norton. Well, this is a very important point, and that
is a very important point for the community to know. Of course,
there are two points of retail interest here. The important
point for the community to know is GSA's very successful
policy.
I will cite the ATF. The ATF has amenities in it, and there
is a small, it turns out, African American woman-owned business
that runs many of the amenities. That, I think, is very
important because we must have these amenities within the
agency or the Federal Government won't move and it shouldn't.
You shouldn't have a huge Federal agency where you can't
get a cup of coffee and some other things and some other
things, to be sure, in there so you don't have to go outside.
That leaves open what happens in every other Federal
agency. They have those amenities, at least if they were built
recently or if they were leased recently. That is to say in
recent decades.
But people are on the streets, and I have no indication
that the District has taken this into account because the
master plan talks about retail very generally.
I need to know what the GSA is going to do since it is
control what amenities are on the inside and what kinds of
amenities or retail--and I use that word broadly--one would
expect from your point of view, knowing Federal employees as
you do, to be on the outside.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Two more points: We are also looking at
ways, working with DHS, even though we have a campus there,
making parts of the campus available and open to the community
on some kind of a regular basis. Specifically, Hitchcock Hall,
which we mentioned earlier, was in very deplorable condition
but is very conducive for adaptive reuse as a confidant
training facility. We think that that is a facility that could
be available for the community to use and have access to the
community.
In addition to that, there will be amenities on campus like
any other campus of this population, but we do expect and we
are hoping in our discussion with the city, that on the East
Campus, that there will be additional amenities available
because we don't anticipate that all the services that a
population of 14,000 employees will need will be able to be
supported on our campus. We are really looking for partnership
with the District on the East Campus just across the street for
Federal employees to take advantage of that.
No Federal employee eats in their cafeteria every day, and
we are really hoping that as the neighborhood develops, as the
phase two program evolves and the East Campus develops, as we
talk to them, that there will be opportunities for Federal
employees to leave the campus.
Ms. Norton. It is interesting. You had indication from the
District that they are going to put something on there?
The only thing on the East Campus now is Government-type
facilities. It would be very important if some of those
amenities could be on the East Campus. They will have some of
the same security problems, but they don't have some of the
problems that the Department of Homeland Security.
Have you had discussions with the District? I know you are
having some discussions about parking.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Yes, in our preliminary discussion with
the District, their planning is in a preliminary stage, but it
does envision mixed use including retail.
Ms. Norton. Has the District indicated when? They have had
this property for 25 years, and they only began to build on it
fairly recently when Mayor Williams came. It would be very
important for the District to jump start its part of this,
given the issues presented here.
But let's turn to either Admiral Gay or Mr. Imperato
because 8th Street. M Street, of course, was on the other side.
Where all these buildings are now was barren. We understand the
contractors came.
But, in a real sense, you have a parallel situation. People
don't go into the Navy Yard, although I must say I am very
grateful that people really do go into use this new marvelous
facility that you have built, a facility that people can use
for events, for dinners and the like. But, essentially, they
don't go into the Navy Yard for lunch and for other retail
amenities from the community because that is also a secure
agency.
Eighth Street, and I can speak from personal experience
because I am a Capitol Hill resident, the fact that Capitol
Hill has been gentrified for 25 years didn't matter. Eighth
Street was moribund, nothing happening there. I couldn't
understand it.
There have been plenty of people in Capitol Hill since the
beginning of time, but 8th Street is a kind of main drag that
had gone downhill. Now look at 8th Street. If you want to see
what is happening, you go to Eighth Street. A lot of it is
restaurants, but there also are other amenities that weren't
there before.
You were not here, Admiral Gay, at the time. I know Mr.
Imperato was because I have worked closely with him. Would you
describe what kind of a relationship developed with the
residents, with the city, with local businesses so that we have
a brand new look and a brand new set of amenities on 8th Street
that had not been there before?
Admiral Gay. Well, ma'am, from the outset, the
collaborative plan was always to look at the capacity we had at
the Navy Yard with 14,000 people, including contractors. We
were set to provide the basic amenities and, through
collaboration with the community's business association, the
community would provide the balance.
John, you could comment further on that process.
Ms. Norton. Well, I am interested in the blossoming of
restaurants, of places where you can go out and buy something,
a card or something if you need one. That is really what I am
interested in, and I see that with my very eyes.
Mr. Imperato. Yes, ma'am. Basically, the most important
thing was to communicate to the community what we were doing.
We worked very closely with the local council member, with
business associations, the resident associations.
The city responded with a great deal of investment on 8th
Street and M Street as far as the infrastructure, the street
lights, street repavings, sidewalk repairs, landscaping,
signage, and the businesses were able to feel that there was
some potential business, and the marketing basically came from
the community to draw the people out to the community for these
amenities.
While we had, as the Admiral pointed out, some limited
basic amenities, food service, most like to not eat the same
thing every single day. The variety on 8th Street that
developed is what draws them out. A lot of the facilities that
we don't provide were out there in the community.
So our job was to educate and encourage the community that
if they built it, the people would come.
Ms. Norton. You advised them on the kind of retail you
thought people might be interested in?
Mr. Imperato. I felt it was very I had to be very careful
not to tell a business what they should do. It was their
expertise that we were relying on to build what our people
would like.
Ms. Norton. In other words, the market will always educate
you.
Mr. Imperato. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Dent, have you any questions for this
witness, these witnesses?
Mr. Dent. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have
a few questions and comments.
Mr. Winstead, I will refer to your testimony in a moment
but, as you know, DHS is about 22 disparate agencies within
DHS, and you are trying to house as many of the critical
components of DHS in the one location over there at St.
Elizabeth's. It is my understanding that you are trying to
consolidate TSA, CBP, ICE, FEMA and the Coast Guard.
In your testimony, you said that DHS is scattered across
the D.C. metro area, more than 70 buildings, occupying almost 7
million square feet of space to house 22,000 employees. You
point out too that this geographical and organizational
dispersion hinders the consolidation of these 22 separate
agencies into a unified, effective organization within a common
culture.
You also estimate that the present value savings over a 30
year period of locating to Government-owned space versus leased
is more than $743 million.
I guess my main question to you is this: Once this building
is completed, this project is completed at St. Elizabeth's and
you do consolidate some of those component parts, how much
lease space will DHS still be needing? Do you have any idea,
once you move those key points?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Generally, I don't have the exact
numbers, but I can answer the question. The lease to own ratio
for the DHS housing in the metropolitan area is about a 70-30,
percent leased and 30 percent owned.
If we are successful in consolidating DHS in a manner that
they believe they can effectively operate, that ratio will
split from 70 percent owned to 30 percent leased. I just don't
have the exact numbers.
Mr. Dent. So you are saying, if I understand you correctly,
that once you move the component parts that I just mentioned
over to St. Elizabeth's, you will be at 70 percent owned versus
30 percent leased.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Correct.
Mr. Dent. So it just flips.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. It will flip.
Mr. Winstead. Congressman, the figure that was cited in the
testimony, the three quarters of a billion over 30 years is the
difference between essentially that ratio being housed in
federally-owned space at St. Elizabeth's versus it continuing
to be in leased space. So that is a net savings to the taxpayer
from the standpoint of the consolidation.
Mr. Dent. Understood. Okay. So you still need at least 30
percent of DHS' needs after the project is complete.
The other question I have is the facilities up on Nebraska
Avenue, those are Federally-owned. Is that correct?
Mr. Winstead. Yes, that is correct. That continues to be
federally-owned, and actually we are continuing to invest in
that facility. The Nebraska Avenue complex currently has about
22 buildings on it, and our investments in that are to
stabilize basically the electrical service systems for that
current compound. So there still would be either occupancy of
DHS there or some other Federal tenant.
Mr. Dent. Is anybody else up there currently besides DHS?
Mr. Winstead. No.
Mr. Dent. It is all DHS. So DHS would continue to maintain
presence at Nebraska Avenue plus St. Elizabeth's once this
project is complete.
Mr. Winstead. Well, the bulk of the tenancy at Nebraska
Avenue is going to be because the Secretary is there.
Mr. Dent. Right. They will move to St. Elizabeth's.
Mr. Winstead. There could be some residual tenants there,
correct.
Mr. Dent. Okay.
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. The basic idea is that, as you noted in
Commissioner Winstead's testimony, DHS is in over 70 buildings
in over 50 locations, and the end state is 6 to 7 locations
which includes St. Elizabeth's, the Nebraska Avenue complex and
several other mini campuses to consolidate their D.C. housing.
Mr. Dent. How many locations will DHS have once you
consolidate?
Okay, we will back to a 70 percent owned versus 30 percent
leased. How many of those sites will you be able to eliminate?
You said how many sites is DHS in around?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. They are in 50 locations.
Mr. Dent. How many locations will they be in once this
project is complete?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Somewhere between six and seven.
Mr. Dent. Six and seven, that is making progress, okay.
At this time, I have no further questions. Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much. Those were important
questions. We will not be able to consolidate this entire
agency in any one place the way it has been constructed.
Mr. Winstead, in your testimony, I am reading from a page
that is not numbered. I am sorry. You talk about the Federal
procurement in the D.C. metro area, $12.5 billion in 1990 to
$28.4 billion in 2000, and you talk about how much greater it
is than regions that are even larger in population than ours.
In your testimony, Mr. Abdur-Rahman, you indicate that
there will be, and again I am quoting from your testimony, ``as
many opportunities as possible'' on Federal projects and for
contractors on Federal projects to establish subcontracting
goals. No. I am sorry; Federal acquisition regulations.
Let me just read the entire thing: ``Federal acquisition
regulations require all Federal agencies to create as many
opportunities as possible for small businesses to compete as
prime contractors on Federal projects and for large contractors
on Federal projects to establish subcontracting goals for small
businesses.''
Then you go on to speak about $240 million in contracts in
the region for small businesses.
I wonder if any of you have figures, Mr. Winstead's figures
on procurement and Mr. Abdur-Rahman figures on contractors for
the District of Columbia, broken out. If you know the region,
there must be a way to know how many of these are in the
District of Columbia.
Mr. Winstead. Madam Chair, I will ask Abdur to chat, but we
basically already spent $13 million to stabilize the site and
maintain the site, which our historic preservation part.
Ms. Norton. But you spent $13 million to stabilize the
site.
Mr. Winstead. The current site.
Ms. Norton. That doesn't tell me where the contractors are
from. I am not suggesting. I understand the competitive nature
of Federal regulations, and I am not suggesting that all
contractors have to come from this community.
I know you have spent money. In fact, I am going to have a
question on the historic sites.
Mr. Winstead. Right.
Ms. Norton. I am trying to find out how much of the, let's
say, $28.4 billion in Federal procurement went to residents or
businesses in the District of Columbia. That $13 million, I am
sure, didn't all go to the District.
In fact, I would imagine, given how much larger the region
is, that most of it went to businesses outside of the District
of Columbia. I hope they were in the region. I know you have to
take the lowest B.I.D. and all the rest of it.
Mr. Winstead. I think that from the standpoint of Steve
Fuller's statistics I am sure there is a way we could probably
break it down between suburban Maryland and the District.
Ms. Norton. Could I ask you to do that so that we have some
sense?
Mr. Winstead. I will.
But, Madam Chair, I will tell you that for that, as I was
starting, the $13 million on stabilization, we do know that the
bulk of that went to 8(a) sub-business contractors and 40
percent of the 8(a) contracts for the $13 million, which is
only the beginning of $3 billion on St. Elizabeth's, 40 percent
went to District contractors. Of that $4 million still
underway, we think that 60 percent are going to be performed by
District businesses.
So we are seeing a huge percentage of the 8(a) work that
has already been done that has gone to D.C. firms.
Ms. Norton. Those are impressive figures. I wish you would
provide for the record who those contractors.
This is procurement or are these contractors? These are
contractors?
Mr. Winstead. Yes, those are the 8(a) contractors that have
done the stabilization work on St. Elizabeth's.
Ms. Norton. Yes, would you please provide that?
Mr. Winstead. Sure.
Ms. Norton. That information along with the breakdown of
how much of the work was provided by each.
I would like to ask about the so-called multiplier system.
You use these words, Mr. Abdur-Rahman, which may tell us more
about the economic benefits.
You say in your testimony that the West Campus will
generate 26,000 jobs and $931 million in payroll during
construction alone. Whether those jobs are mostly filled by
people, some of them live in the District, some don't. I am
pleased to have them.
We know that the closer an agency is to the District the
more District residents are likely to work in the agency.
My question really goes to the next sentence: It is also
expected to produce $18 million per year in sales and use taxes
after occupancy occurs.
What does that mean, $18 million in sales and use taxes in
the District of Columbia, right?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Correct, in the region. This is a
regional model, and this is after occupancy for the follow-on
services and just the basic business of having 14,000 employees
on the campus and buying services and staying in the District.
There is an economy that is supported as a result of that
activity.
Ms. Norton. So this $18 million also is region?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Yes.
Ms. Norton. Sales and use taxes is also region?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Yes, all these. All the data from the
RIMS model is regional.
Ms. Norton. I am asking you both to break that out from
your multiplier systems in your case to let me at least what
the lay of the land is now.
You indicated something. I think it was in your testimony,
Mr. Abdur-Rahman, that you anticipate that, and I am looking
for it in the testimony. It has to do with contractors and
office space.
In your testimony, you said, in addition, contractors doing
business with DHS will be tempted to locate in office space
within a short distance of the campus to facilitate frequent
contacts with their client. This was certainly the case with
the Navy. You anticipate, therefore, the need for some office
space close by the DHS facility?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Yes.
Ms. Norton. I think under the District's planning rules and
regulations, there would have to be some retail connected with
that as well.
So, construction opportunities, when one considers what
happened to M Street, it is important to note here. Again, we
have the wall. We have a good part of the main thoroughfare,
Ward 8, taken out by a wall. That means there is going to have
to be a lot of creative thinking about how to make sure that
needed retail that Federal employees will want and that the
local community will want takes place.
Let me suggest. Well, first, let me ask if this has ever
occurred. I agree with Mr. Imperato, that essentially we are in
a market economy and you are going to put out there what
somebody can make some money doing, but the District's planning
operation does control to some extent what goes out in our
neighborhoods.
People get very upset when they find certain things, fast
food things, for example, dotting their neighborhoods and don't
have a sit-down restaurant. That is particularly true of Ward
8. It is true all over the city, though.
Has the Federal Government ever surveyed its own employees
before you move to an area to inform the market of the kinds of
things employees are likely to look for?
For example, the kinds of things that, oh, my goodness, I
can't to downtown. I won't go to the Mall or I would like to
get out of this wall in order to do what on the outside and buy
what. Have you ever done a survey just to find out?
Mr. Winstead. Well, Madam Chair, we do a very thorough in
the case of DHS in terms, and obviously this is personnel
confidential. But we look at demographics of where people are
living and when they come, and we also are well aware the kind
of amenities they are looking for.
Dawud can talk about the efforts at St. Elizabeth's with
that community and sensing through this program in September
and the other meetings we have had over 12 up there with the
community in terms of what they are expecting.
But, in the case of the FDA, we have had a very active
involvement with the employee group and the citizen group and
community groups around the new White Oak campus. I can tell
you how active it is. Quarterly, citizens get together with
employees as well as the director of facilities at the FDA
campus and talk about, as they migrate from basically south
Rockville, the Twinbrook area, over to White Oak, what are the
needs they need in terms of dry cleaning off campus or other
amenities.
That is something that this group, Labquest, which is
similar to the economic development Anacostia effort and the
neighborhood effort has been very active in. I would think that
we would be taking and already are taking a similar protocol in
dealing with St. Elizabeth's.
It is understanding what our employees will need, what in
fact, by security requirements and mix of use on the campus,
will be available versus obviously the benefits of having the
D.C. zoning and density and future neighborhood plans in
Anacostia account for higher density and mixed use, both
residential and obviously retail and amenities. So we would
commit to doing the same thing.
I think the thing I am mostly aligned with or know about is
this FDA experience. They have incredibly good communications
going back between what the employees need or expect as they
migrate from Twinbrook to White Oak and what the community can
offer. I think that model, as the Southeast Federal Center was,
can be a good model for St. Elizabeth's.
Ms. Norton. That kind of collaboration seems to be very
important because to get something that one wants and the other
doesn't might affect whether or not somebody comes.
One of the things that occurs to me is no matter what kind
of food you have on the inside, you might find that there are
certain kinds of sit-down restaurants and food that you get on
the outside that people want to come out to have, to actually
go to lunch outside of the wall.
Mr. Imperato, what has been the experience on 8th Street
with that kind of communication?
Mr. Imperato. Well, basically, we just kept the information
flowing and the market, as you said, developed to respond to
what people were seeking.
You know what we had on the Navy Yard was minimal--as you
say, fast food, very small facilities, enough in the case of
bad weather to take care of people's basic needs. But they want
more, and they went out to get it, and the community responded
by building it.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Abdur-Rahman, you mentioned the historic
preservation. There were some considerable resources that the
GSA, once it took control, had to put into it just to preserve
the historic qualities of this building. Do you, you and
perhaps Mr. Winstead, anticipate reuse of most of these
buildings?
Here, I preface this by saying the Federal Government is
the only entity I know in the United States that will put money
into preserving a building if it is a historic building. The
reason the developers are not interested in sites which have
historic buildings is that they obviously can't afford to do
that because it raises the cost. So the Federal Government
usually partners with a developer so that that whole cost
doesn't go onto the developer.
What kind of reuse do you anticipate at St. Elizabeth's?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. For this project, it was mentioned in my
testimony that we do, with the alternatives that we have in our
preliminary master plan, envision the reuse of the majority of
the contributing buildings, and that has been acknowledged by
the Advisory Council and Historic Preservation, all the other
preservation groups that we do adapt and reuse the majority of
the contributing buildings to the NHL.
I wanted to add another comment to the question about the
things that we are doing at St. Elizabeth's in terms of trying
to marry the desire of the employees with the retail in the
area. We have taken some steps, and we are planning additional
steps in that area.
When the project started, GSA and DHS with Coast Guard, DHS
and Coast Guard assembled an employee group in the Coast Guard
and then it will be joined by DHS as they come onto the
program, to really represent the desires and wishes and
questions about the employees that are going to the area. We
began answering questions about planned developed in Ward 8
which, as you know, has a lot of new housing starts and other
development in the area, so that they would be aware of it.
In our meeting on Monday with the Ward 8 Business Council
with James Bunn and Brenda Richardson, we talked about and we
will follow up on the idea of having like a retail roundtable
where the Ward 8 Business Council will broker a discussion with
GSA and DHS and Coast Guard and the developers that are
thinking about bringing services to the community to make sure
that we have just that type of matching of the demand and the
need in the area because I think what we all recognize is that
even though we are going to have, as Navy mentioned, kind of
minimal services for DHS employees, no one eats in the
cafeteria forever.
The overall issue in that community is that the entire
community is under-served right now. So we want to make sure
that when the 14,000 employees come in, there is a matching of
the demand and the need with the community and the DHS
employees.
Ms. Norton. Yes, go ahead.
Mr. Winstead. I just wanted to comment about a question
about historic landmark designation. Obviously, we only have a
couple dozen National Historic Landmarks with St. Elizabeth's
as one. We are putting a lot of effort into this both on an NCR
level and at the commissioner's office level and working with
the historic preservation leadership.
Our goal is to preserve, the number I have heard is at
least 80 percent--and this has been shared with the historic
preservation people--of the existing structures to achieve this
4.5 million square feet.
I would not be misrepresenting saying that this is going to
be an easy task. We are very engaged with these groups. As I
mentioned, tomorrow Dick Moe is meeting for the second time
with me. I have toured the site with Dick Moe as well as John
Nau who chairs the Advisory Council. Our people have hired
consultants, historic preservationists, obviously, land
planners, space planners, master planners and the like.
Our biggest challenge is this density around these historic
properties, but we are confident that with the advisory role of
ACHP and the 106 process, that we are going to achieve a
balance between what DHS needs in housing their critical
components to be an increasingly effective agency and
preserving this campus.
It is very interesting to me that in my tour over a year
ago with Dick Moe, he turned to me at one point and said, you
know 1.5 million square feet seems a lot of space for this
historic campus. That was his first comment.
His second comment was, David, we do understand that we are
so much better off having GSA look at this with the resources
it has and its ability to balance both historic preservation
and the needs for making this a live campus.
I think that is the way both we are approaching it at GSA
and the historic preservation people are. I would also mention
we are engaged, obviously, with the Department of Interior and
input that we are getting from all of those groups.
Ms. Norton. Could I ask you about access?
As I said, most people are not much interested in going
into a Federal building when most Federal buildings don't have
an extraordinary view from which one can just look at
Washington and the so-called Point and access to the Point we
have discussed. Again, I am assuming that the access to the
Point is going to be preserved. Could you elaborate on that?
Mr. Abdur-Rahman. Yes. As a part of the master plan process
and as a part of all the discussions that I have conducted with
the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, we have talked about
providing what we call regularly scheduled access to the Point.
To the degree that there is some negotiated way with the
community to provide access, that seems to be acceptable.
I do want to point out that we have also received comments
from Bolling Air Force Base and the White House Security Office
that they are concerned that we not provide unscheduled open
access at all times. So there is a balance here to try to
strike between the security of DHS and our Federal neighbors
and the desire of the community.
The community, some of the ANC leaders have mentioned that
around certain holidays or other events, as long as there is a
procedure, they understand they can gain access to the site.
That might be acceptable, similar to the way they have access
to Bolling Air Force Base right now.
Ms. Norton. Well, you now what? This is not an Air Force
base, and this is in the middle of a community. It is not a
highway.
I can just tell you right now, I would be willing to sit
with the agencies involved. I think I am going to have to do
that. If they are talking about holidays, first of all, this
facility is guarded 24-7.
The Federal Government is going to have to understand that
when you are located in a community, there are certain things
that you have to do to be a good neighbor, and one thing you
don't do is to say you can't get to the highest point in the
city to survey the entire city and region except on the Fourth
of July. You don't do that.
You say to the community, this is the kind of thing we will
do, but that is something that as a Member of the Homeland
Security Committee, I am most aware of the difficulty you are
having. That is not something you can do by yourself. I will
call in GSA along with the appropriate agencies and see what we
can work out.
I want to say, finally, that what you just said, Mr. Abdur-
Rahman, about collaboration between the employees and the
community makes me very hopeful. To establish that kind of
collaboration as early as possible so that everybody is on the
same page in a number of ways and retail, I suppose, would be
only one of them. But it does seem to me that that would be a
very important thing to do, particularly given the concerns, at
least I have, about the wall seeming to indicate to employees
there is no outside world there.
I encourage you to continue with that effort, and I am very
pleased that the Ward 8 Business Council is already involve din
that effort. I think that is very hopeful and can be very
fruitful for the kinds of issues we are discussing here today.
I want to thank each and every one of you for coming.
Well, Mr. Winstead has something.
Mr. Winstead. Madam Chair, you mentioned earlier this issue
of security and your concern for it and personally being
involved with community, our planning and DHS' interest.
You mentioned you may be looking at the security question
in another hearing format. We would welcome that.
The Office of Chief Architect, which I will submit to the
Committee, just finished a new security design guide. Our
attempt here is to obviously uphold the Federal Protection
Service requirements, ISS standards for a Level 5 facility,
which this will probably be, the top level of security. We do
have a new approach which we will be implementing within the
master plan to make sure that our security requirements and
some of the designs are as palatable for both, obviously,
protection as well as community.
Ms. Norton. You say a new approach. When you say a new
approach, what do you mean?
Mr. Winstead. In terms of the design of our buildings and
campuses. If you are going to have another hearing, we can get
into this in detail, but I would like to submit this to the
Committee at this time.
Ms. Norton. Well, I suppose my experience representing the
District of Columbia after 9/11 was that if Federal officials,
particularly Members of Congress, don't watch, security
officials just have at it and they will overreact. I have to
tell you that people let them do it because they don't take any
note of it.
Right after 9/11, it was all I could do to get any other
work done to keep them from closing down the District of
Columbia. These checkpoints where cars go by, this was make
work.
Well, I am very concerned about not being able to get into
a Federal building to use the cafeteria. I really am. I don't
know what it means to show your ID. If all you have to do is to
show your ID, then it is useless, isn't it?
Then we want to be clear that anybody can come. But I tell
you this gentleman who is head of the B.I.D. had to call
somebody to come and vouch for him. That is the kind of thing
that if my colleagues know about it, I think we can eliminate
and, if we work closely with GSA, I think we can show that we
need as much security as is useful and not so much as keeps
taxpayers out of buildings, not to mention visitors and others
who have business.
Again, I thank each of you for testimony that we have found
very helpful.
I would like to call the next panel: Robert James from the
Ward 8 Business Counsel; Albert Hopkins, Jr., President and
CEO, Anacostia Economic Development Corporation; Philip
Pannell, Executive Director, Anacostia Coordinating Council;
Stan Voudrie, Principal, Four Points, LLC; and Barbara Lang,
CEO of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.
We will just proceed from left to right. Would you, please,
as you testify, give your name and your organization?
Mr. James?
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT JAMES, PRESIDENT, WARD 8 BUSINESS COUNCIL;
ALBERT HOPKINS, JR., PRESIDENT AND CEO, ANACOSTIA ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION; PHILIP PANNELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
ANACOSTIA COORDINATING COUNCIL; STAN VOUDRIE, PRINCIPAL, FOUR
POINTS, LLC; BARBARA LANG, CEO, D.C. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Mr. James. Good morning, Committee Chair and Members of the
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and
Emergency Management.
My name is Robert James. I am Chairman of the Ward 8
Business Council. I am here today to testify about the New DHS
Headquarters at St. Elizabeth's: Local Business Opportunities.
First, let me start off by saying it is indeed a pleasure
and an honor to come before you today as a resident of the
District of Columbia. The Ward 8 community is very pleased to
be a part of the process of planning and implementation of
General Services Administration's new site on the West Campus
of St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
However, there are some issues we would like to express to
you. There are eight of them in particular:
Number one, engaging in CBEs, Certified Business
Enterprises, and getting them on your schedule;
Number two, identifying prospective job opportunities for
Ward 8 residents;
Number three, ensuring historic preservation;
Number four, ensuring public access to the Point;
Number five, conducting an impact statement on
transportation and jobs;
Number six, encouraging your employees to patronize
businesses on the MLK Jr. corridor;
Number seven, absorbing additional costs for
infrastructure;
Number eight, encouraging the use of public transportation
to protect the air quality in Ward 8.
We understand that the Coast Guard headquarters as well as
Homeland Security will occupy some of the space on the West
Campus of St. Elizabeth's. We have some concerns with the
accessibility of how this project will be incorporated into our
community.
As you know, we already have Bolling Air Force Base and the
community has very little access. Clearly, with the structure
of the Coast Guard and Homeland Security, access will be
limited. Hence, we need to find some means of cooperation with
the 14,000 employees to be an asset to the rest of the ward,
and the ward will benefit from the facilities being there.
Also, there is a greater likelihood for more retail, sit-
down restaurants, et cetera. We are also interested in
exploring the needs of the employees to get a better picture of
their shopping and housing needs. The Ward 8 Business Council
envisions a downtown Anacostia that is likened to the 7th
Street corridor on Capitol Hill. We hope that GSA will
encourage the employees to use the amenities on MLK Jr. Avenue,
Southeast.
Anther issue is changing traffic patterns. We assume that
the flow of traffic will increase tremendously on MLK Jr.
Avenue, Malcolm X and Good Hope Road, Southeast. We have two
subway stops that will be used as well, Alabama Avenue and
Anacostia Metro stations. You can see how important it is for
GSA, the Ward 8 Business Council and Council Member Marion
Barry to work together to meet the needs of the additional
employees who will be traveling those corridors.
As you look around the new Ward 8, there is plenty of
affordable and upscale housing. We would hope that some of
those 14,000 employees would be residents of our community.
The Ward 8 Business Council has been mandated by Council
Member Marion Barry to make sure that whatever is built in the
new Ward 8 ensures that employment or contractual opportunities
are available to residents or Certified Business Enterprises,
CBEs. We also work very closely with Erik Moses who head the
D.C. Office of Small and Disadvantaged Businesses. The Ward 8
Business Council has a list of all the CBEs in Ward 8 that are
qualified to participate in the building of the project from
beginning to end.
Additionally, we are concerned about the historic buildings
on the west side. We attend Council Member Barry's monthly Ward
8 History-Heritage Council meetings to discuss historic sites
in the community. We encourage GSA to be mindful of the
historic significance of St. Elizabeth's and the community.
As Chairman of the Ward 8 Business Council, I would extend
an invitation to GSA to work with us very closely so that we
all come to a mutual agreement about the project being built on
the West Campus. We are very excited about having new
neighbors. We will do everything in our power to ensure that
the transition between the community and GSA is as smooth as
possible.
Let me close by saying there are many other concerns that I
have, but I am certain that between the planning and community
meetings, we will be able to work out any differences we have.
Again, I am delighted that GSA will be our new neighbors.
Please feel free to call on the Ward 8 Business Council for any
assistance we can provide.
Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. James.
Mr. Hopkins.
Mr. Hopkins. Good morning, Chairperson Holmes Norton and
Committee Members.
My name is Albert R. Hopkins, Jr., and I am President and
CEO of the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation located
in Ward 8 in Washington, D.C. I appreciate the opportunity to
provide testimony before this Subcommittee on the proposed
Department of Homeland Security headquarters to be located at
St. Elizabeth's West Campus and associated opportunities for
local businesses.
I must first inform you, for the purposes of full
disclosure, that the AEDC is a member of the one of the teams
that has submitted a proposal to provide construction
management services to the GSA to manage the construction of
the Department of Homeland Security headquarters facility.
By way of background, AEDC is a non-profit organization
that has operated in the Anacostia-Far Southeast area of
Washington, D.C. for over 37 years. It is AEDC's mission to
provide affordable housing opportunities for District of
Columbia residents, enhance the economic viability of the east
of the river communities and provide support to local and small
businesses located in this area.
AEDC is also a participant in the Washington, D.c. Small
Business Development Center Network. Under contract with Howard
University and the U.S. Small Business Administration, we
operate one of four centers located in the District of Columbia
that provides a wide variety of technical and managerial
assistance to small businesses located through the District.
During the course of the current year, the Small Business
Development Center at AEDC provided technical assistance to
over 240 District-based clients and provides instruction and
training to over 375 workshop and seminar participants.
The development of the DHS headquarters at St. Elizabeth's
West Campus represents one of the most unique opportunities
associated with the resurgence and redevelopment of the
Anacostia-Far Southeast community. This major Federal
department will be located within the immediate proximity of
resurging commercial corridors and in close proximity to
several new and existing quality residential communities.
The DHS facility will also be located within the boundaries
of the planned Anacostia Business Improvement District which
will be able to provide services such as street cleaning,
shuttle service to and from Metro stops, and safety ambassadors
for the DHS headquarters' personnel.
Research compiled by AEDC staff, the Washington, D.C.
Economic Partnership and others indicates that Anacostia-Far
Southeast neighborhoods are undergoing an economic resurgence
never before experienced.
The planning, construction and development of the DHS
headquarters facility, with its scheduled multi-year build-out,
should be one of several economic engines that will guide and
drive small business opportunities in this area. However, as
has been seen in the past, this will not happen without the
aggressive and affirmative planning and implementation of
strategies that improve the small business utilization
performance of both the District and Federal governments.
I would remind the Subcommittee Chairperson of the
September 18th, 2007 forum presented by the U.S. General
Services Administration's National Capital Region, in
collaboration with the AEDC, entitled St. Elizabeth's West
Campus Business Opportunities Forum held in Ward 8 at Matthews
Memorial Baptist Church.
This well attended event represented the first formal
introduction of the plans for the West Campus to the small
business community of the District of Columbia and Ward 8. The
event also featured GSA contracting officers as well as prime
contractors and tenant agencies. We were honored to have the
Congresswoman address the participants.
However, efforts must go beyond our current emphasis to
help small and local businesses apply for and receive LSDBE,
SBA 8(a) and CCR, Central Contracting Registration,
certifications. Methodologies should be put in place before,
during and after the construction of the DHS facility to
enhance participation by small and local businesses in every
facet of the planning, development and operation of the
facility.
The formulation of joint ventures and collaborations should
be further explored as a means by which small and local
businesses might be significantly involved in this development
process. Each and every solicitation associated with the
project should require the respondent to address provisions for
significant small and local business utilization.
Regarding my views on the question of what types of retail
opportunities are needed in Anacostia, my response turns on a
very simple analysis. The retail needs of the Anacostia-Far
Southeast neighborhood mirror those of all areas of the
District that have experienced rising value in their commercial
and residential real estate markets and significant positive
changes in their demographics and work populations.
The Anacostia-Far Southeast area is increasing in
population as a result of the many new residential developments
completed, under development and in the production pipeline. In
addition, it is projected that the new DHS headquarters at St.
Elizabeth's will add approximately 14,000 new full-time
employees to the community. The estimated population increase
will result in increased demand for first class retail goods
and services.
However, if the GSA allows substantial retail
establishments such as restaurants, cleaners, drugstores, fast
food establishments, bookstores, coffee houses, et cetera, to
locate within the St. Elizabeth's West Campus, there will be no
net benefit to the Ward 8 community since the West Campus of
St. Elizabeth's will, in all probability, be off limits to non-
DHS or other unauthorized persons.
It, therefore, becomes imperative for the GSA and the
District of Columbia Government to mutually decide how to bring
these retail goods and services to the area so that both the
Ward 8 community and the DHS community benefit therefrom.
One obvious solution would be for the District of Columbia
Government to put in place a development plan which would allow
for the establishment of retail zones along the east side of
Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue on the East Campus of St.
Elizabeth's. The GSA could assist the District in this regard
by conducting a survey of existing DHS personnel to ascertain
their retail needs and desires, provide same to the District
and refrain from placing those types of retailers on the West
Campus.
The District Government, in turn, can provide parking space
for DHS personnel on the East Campus. This would ensure that
DHS personnel will frequent the East Campus on a daily basis
and be exposed to the many new retail establishments on that
campus.
If necessary, the District of Columbia and the GSA can
mutually decide where new traffic signals and crosswalks should
be located along the Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue corridor to
safely facilitate the movement of DHS personnel to and from the
West Campus to the East Campus.
From the Ward 8 community's perspective, there is great
concern that the DHS headquarters on the West Campus will be an
isolated facility which will provide no economic or
aesthetically pleasing benefit to it.
To be an asset to the Ward 8 community and to
simultaneously address the security needs of the DHS, the
District of Columbia and DHS-GSA officials should realistically
consider where operations of the DHS which require less
security can be placed on the West Campus. For example, at the
Southern End of the West Campus near Milwaukee Place, perhaps
less secure operations could be situated, thereby allowing some
retail outlets to be placed at that location which then could
be accessed by the general Ward 8 community.
The objective is to make maximum use of this major economic
development so that it not only serves and meets the needs of
GSA and DHS but also provides economic spinoff benefits to the
Ward 8 community in which it is located.
In order to further facilitate the acceptance of the DHS
headquarters within the Ward 8 community and to increase the
opportunity for Ward 8 and District of Columbia-based Local,
Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises--or what are now
referred to as Certified Business Enterprises--to secure
contracts, to participate in the planning and construction of
the facility, AEDC feels strongly that the following services
be availed to the DHS development process:
One, provide a community liaison between the GSA, DHS,
District of Columbia Government and the Ward 8 business and
residential community during the planning and development of
the facility.
Two, create a means to work with Ward 8 and District-based
LSDBE-CBE firms to prepare them for the contracting
opportunities that will be made available at the DHS St.
Elizabeth's site.
Three, establish a working relationship with employment
training providers, such as Opportunities Industrialization
Center, to prepare Ward 8 residents for the employment
opportunities that will be made available as a result of the
new DHS development.
It is important to note that we will only have one shot at
this wonderful opportunity that will bring approximately 4.5
million square feet of commercial development to the Ward 8
community. We need to go about this task as if it is what it
is, a land use development opportunity that seeks to address
the needs of three entities: the District of Columbia
Government, the Federal Government and the Ward 8 community.
The three entities obviously need to work in concert and
determine how best to meet each other's needs through the
creation of a holistic economic development project.
AEDC is appreciative to have the opportunity to offer its
assistance in reaching this objective.
Thank you, Madam Chairperson, for providing this occasion
for AEDC to share its views on these subjects with you and the
Committee. I would be pleased to attempt to respond to any
questions that you may have.
Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Thank you very much, Mr. Hopkins.
Mr. Pannell.
Mr. Pannell. Good morning, Madam Chairwoman.
My name is Philip Pannell, and I am the Executive Director
of the Anacostia Coordinating Council, also know as ACC, which
is in its 24th year as a non-profit, volunteer consortium of
individuals and organizations concerned and involved with the
revitalization of Anacostia and its adjacent neighborhoods. The
ACC engages in information gathering and sharing, networking,
advocacy and community organization.
For the past 13 years, ACC has been chaired by Arrington
Dixon.
The community is excited about plans to move the new
Department of Homeland Security to the West Campus of St.
Elizabeth's Hospital and the local business opportunities that
will be available. For the purposes of the DHS development, ACC
defines local businesses as those that are located east of the
Anacostia River and particularly those that are in Ward 8.
The ACC recommends that the local businesses be involved in
the planning, construction and operations in all appropriate
aspects of the DHS headquarters development and all ongoing
contractual work.
ACC recommends that the General Services Administration and
the District of Columbia Government engage in the nurturing of
the current local businesses and encourage businesses to locate
east of Anacostia River.
It would be ideal if the DHS would require contractors and
vendors to set up offices in close proximity to the Anacostia
Metro station. Also, the ACC recommends that the businesses
that are established on the campus be locally-owned.
The development that occurred on and around the Navy Yard
is an example of the opportunities that are available to those
east of the Anacostia River with DHS. The Navy Yard development
has had a cascading impact on that community and enhanced the
vibrant 8th Street business corridor from Pennsylvania Avenue
to M Street. Because of the dearth of eclectic businesses on
Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, ACC encourages the establishment
of retail businesses of all kinds such as food, clothing,
hardware, informational technology, entertainment, et cetera.
Over the years, the ACC has been acknowledged for its
outreach strategies and its success in organizing large
meetings to engage community conversation and involvement. It
is more than willing and able to be an outreach vehicle for the
GSA and the District of Columbia Government and welcomes the
opportunity to forge a contractual relationship.
In the August 31st, 2007 preliminary draft to the National
Capital Planning Commission for comment, the GSA's master plan
for the DHS headquarters consolidation at St. Elizabeth's West
Campus cites in its Community Involvement Summary the meetings
that GSA representatives have had with the ACC dating back to
2005. ACC stands ready to continue that constructive
engagement.
Madam Chair, with your permission, I would like mention two
things that are not in my testimony, particularly since the
issue of the historical aspects of the West Campus have been
alluded to several times this morning.
There used to be a wonderful museum that was on the West
Campus in the Center Building. It was there for decades, and
people quite literally came from all over the world, which was
documented in the sign-in registry there, to see that museum,
and the museum's focus was on the history of psychology as well
as the history of psychiatric treatment of the mentally ill. It
actually had artifacts such as some of the original beds when
St. Elizabeth's opened and some Dorothea Dix's personal
memorabilia. As a matter of fact, it had a wonderful visual
chronology of psychiatry, starting with Freud.
This museum, first of all, was one of the best kept secrets
not only in Ward 8 but throughout the city because it did not
have the money for outreach to promote the museum.
The artifacts were dispersed to places unknown or, at your
meeting that you had the Petey Green Center, someone from GSA
said that well, some of the artifacts may be at Howard
University. Some of them may be at Walter Reed.
Wherever they are, they need to come back together because
that was such an incredibly historical jewel in the rough, and
that would be quite beneficial to the community in so many ways
to actually reestablish that museum.
Also, on the grounds of the West Campus is a Civil War
cemetery which is unique in the aspect that it actually has the
bodies of both African American and white Civil War soldiers
buried there, which was unheard of to have an integrated
cemetery. I would hope that the community will have access to
that very historical site because it is extremely important in
terms of the history of Ward 8 and the Civil War.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Ms. Norton. Well, that is a very interesting anecdote about
this historic site. I will have staff look to see where these
artifacts have been dispersed. We know that the cemetery hasn't
been dispersed, and we know there is an obligation to, in fact,
maintain it.
But this notion of access, it comes up again, and this is
something we are going to have to assure. I am going to have to
work with a whole lot more than GSA on that because I have to
contend with the people who think they run things. Those are
the security people. They run things until there is some
intervention, and then we are always able to get some
relaxation.
So, thank you for that.
Mr. Pannell. Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Voudrie.
Mr. Voudrie. Good morning and thank you, Madam Chair, for
the opportunity to appear before you today.
My name is Stan Voudrie. I am a Principal with Four Points,
LLC, a D.C.-based real estate development company.
I second the comments of my fellow panelists regarding
access to the site and development of the St. E's campus, but I
would like to take a few moments in the opportunity to make
this body aware of some of the planned new development in the
historic Anacostia neighborhood.
Four Points has formed a joint venture with the Curtis
Family, a landowner and business owner in historic Anacostia
for over 80 years. We have been working together with the
various community stakeholders, the D.C. Office of Planning and
others over the last two years to formulate a development plan
for approximately 9.5 acres of land that we own along Martin
Luther King Jr. Avenue.
The site plan of the proposed development is attached to my
written testimony for your reference.
The plan covers an area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr.
Avenue on the east, U Street, Southeast on the north end of the
site, Chicago Place to the south and then 295 to the west. Our
plan calls for the development of approximately 500 new
residential units, 165,000 square feet of new retail space and
855,000 square feet of new office.
We are concluding the preliminary planning and intend to
submit the project to the D.C. Zoning Commission for approval
in the first quarter of 2008 which would allow us to get
approval in late 2008 and begin construction in 2009 for a
first phase ready to be occupied in 2011.
It is our opinion that this neighborhood is currently
under-served across almost every retail category even before
the addition of the 14,000 new Federal employees in the
neighborhood. As such, our plan calls for development that will
bring neighborhood-serving retail to historic Anacostia. We
have included space for a grocery store and have begun
preliminary discussions with potential operators for that
store. We also have space for a full service pharmacy, a
drugstore, restaurant spaces as well as opportunity for an
urban cinema with eight to ten screens.
Additionally, we now have several smaller retail spaces
that are not part of this new development but that are
available for lease. We have recently leased one of those to a
local entrepreneur that is starting a coffee shop, and the
other spaces are being toured by art gallery owners, restaurant
operators, but to date we don't have any additional leases
signed for that space.
Again, I thank you for this opportunity.
We look forward to DHS moving to our neighborhood. We
believe that with proper planning and coordination, that they
can be a very positive addition to the community, and I welcome
the opportunity to work with this body and GSA to make sure
that that happens.
Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Mr. Voudrie.
Ms. Lang.
Ms. Lang. Good morning, Madam Chair.
I am Barbara Lang. I am President and CEO of the District
of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and I am pleased to testify
before the Subcommittee on Economic Development as it considers
the community bordering the St. Elizabeth's campus. As the
largest business organization in this region, the Chamber works
hard to make living, working, playing and, of course, doing
business in the District of Columbia a much better proposition
for everyone.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to testify on
behalf of our 2000 plus members and the 200,000 residents that
employ them about how GSA can best use its resources to aid the
economic development of the areas adjacent to the St.
Elizabeth's campus.
Let me begin by saying I was delighted to hear some of the
earlier testimony from GSA. The community adjoining St.
Elizabeth's has been overlooked for many years, and we are
pleased to learn that the Department of Homeland Security and
14,000 of its employees will be relocating to the campus.
This move creates an opportunity for economic development
in Congress Heights that has not existed for decades. Because
the local neighborhood economy of Congress Heights stagnated
long ago, its residents have been largely excluded from the
city's economic resurgence.
Developing the St. E's campus and sharing its economic
benefit with the community should be a foremost concern as GSA
and DHS move forward and, to be clear, the economic benefits
DHS brings as a new neighbor in Anacostia, must be felt outside
St. Elizabeth's historic gate and fortified walls.
DHS must not and cannot create an oasis of services walled
off, withheld and withdrawn from the residents of Ward 8. Some
residents have expressed concern that this will be a secure
compound impervious to the community and unwilling to interact
with its surroundings.
We all know that an optimal environment is one in which the
community and DHS benefit from symbiotic economic interaction.
They must be an anchor of economic stability and a catalyst for
development that creates jobs, encourages economic investment
and patronizes neighborhood businesses. DHS can be a catalyst
for change that is long overdue.
What does this change look like? It takes the form of a
robust economic activity, and the best example I can provide is
the renaissance we have seen in downtown Washington such as
Gallery Place. Over the last 10 years, it has evolved from an
area where people came to work and left at the end of the day
to a place where people work during the day, play and dine at
night and enjoy at all times.
It takes time, however, and change will happen in stages,
but GSA can begin laying the foundation now for a similar
economic rebirth east of the river.
You are beginning to see several of the economic and
community factors necessary for growth emerge. First and
foremost, preparations are being made for construction of a
complex that will house a cabinet level agency. In the short
term, that means construction-related jobs. In the long term,
it means a daily influx of employees who will demand certain
services during the workday.
You also have a Metro station and I-295 nearby to help
ferry workers to work. The importance of these very basic
infrastructural assets should not be overlooked.
Once you get employees to work, they are going to demand
food and other small retail services. These small retailers
need to be patronized by DHS employees during work hours and be
available to serve the community at all times. Examples that
comes to mind are a diverse mix of food establishments, a CVS
or some sort of pharmacy, a bookstore, a gift shop and perhaps
dry cleaner.
The vision should be to grow the economy from daytime
establishments in the beginning and then broaden to serve the
entire community with a mall and wider range of shops.
Eventually, there should be sit-down dining establishments and
a theater for nightlife. The ultimate goal should be mixed use
development serving the needs of the people and the businesses
upon which they rely.
The downtown area is the best example of this model. There
are many small businesses and vendors that cater to workers
during the day. There is also fine dining and nightlife for
after work. This business model of serving the office worker
and layering economic activity to serve and coincide with them
will be a winning strategy in the areas surrounding St. E's.
We ask that you look to the lessons of our city's success
downtown, along U Street, on H Street but also the Pentagon and
Pentagon City model as you consider how to attract new
businesses to Congress Heights.
The final question is how to incentivize companies to
relocate in areas around the St. E's complex. We encourage you
to consider tax and other incentives that might include DHS
devoting a significant percentage of their contracts to
neighborhood businesses. Such arrangements would link DHS to
the community and would offer new business a stable customer
base from the outset when they are most, most vulnerable.
The government might also consider guaranteeing small
business loans and offering low-cost financing for vendors in
the neighborhood.
In DHS' move to the St. E's campus, we see tremendous
opportunities for District residents and for DHS. The Chamber
is available to partner with you, Madam Chair, as you move
forward, and we look forward to St. Elizabeth's becoming
another Washington success story.
Thank you very much for having me testify, and I will be
available to answer any questions.
Ms. Norton. Well, thank you very much, Ms. Lang.
Could I just ask a threshold question of all you who have
experience, business experience in this city and in this
region?
Typically, in the District of Columbia, it has been
difficult to get the commercial strip developed. I mean you
have it all over the District. You have the complaints on
Georgia Avenue.
I am not sure I know of a residential area where the strip
has developed as you would think it would have to serve the
people who live there. There is money to be made there. Well,
the same thing, obviously, pertains here.
I live on Capitol Hill, and 8th Street was hardly. It was
essentially moribund and it didn't matter even that over time
it became more and more gentrified. Therefore, I don't approach
any of this with the notion of spontaneous combustion.
Something will happen, and I do know that when there is a big
market of moving into an area and we have always found that
Federal employees draw people.
You have seen me express some skepticism here and not
because of the community itself but because of the way the wall
operates and spaces across the street and on either side.
You have been in the business of trying to attract business
to the area. Given the large population, given people needing
services, what has been a major reason that they haven't come
to serve the population itself for all these years?
Why do we see such deterioration on Martin Luther King Jr.
Avenue? It is a disgrace.
Mr. Hopkins. Well, you have two critical components in
order to bring the needed retail goods and services that we all
desire, and those two critical components that are needed are a
strong daytime consumer base and you need an economic rising
residential base where the incomes are higher than what have
always been historically present east of the river.
The residential base is coming because of Henson Ridge
development and shops at Park Village, et cetera, all of the
many housing developments on the way. But that daytime consumer
base, where you have people with disposable income, we don't
have that great a population. So, therefore, Homeland Security
with 14,000 personnel full-time employees, provides a great
opportunity.
Also, we have been saddled with a long strip of M.L. King
that has had actually no retail commercial type development. So
those characteristics that we have been faced with have sort of
held us back.
Ms. Norton. Yes, you have burdens that other neighborhoods
don't have in that regard, but I think you make an important
point here about daytime people, daytime traffic as well, and
that may explain why other residential neighborhoods have
experienced the same problem of development along the strip. We
hope that, again, if the planning is done well, if in fact the
kind of collaboration that was mentioned in the GSA testimony
by Mr. Abdur-Rahman occurs with employees and community
residents, perhaps we can overcome some of these burdens.
Mr. James, would you discuss? I understand the Ward 8
Business Council has been working with GSA in order to get some
kind of collaboration with employees.
Mr. James. Yes, we do plan to meet with them again to
implement that. We do plan to meet with them again.
Ms. Norton. You want to start this collaboration with the
employees to come on the kinds of services you think people are
going to need?
Mr. James. Yes, we will do that, and we will do that very
soon.
Ms. Norton. Ms. Lang, you mentioned Gallery Place. By the
way, Gallery Place and all of downtown is the accidental, I
should say is the accidental, not entirely but large parts of
it, beneficiary of the D.C. business tax credits that I got in
the 1990s. When I got the home buyer tax credit, I got these
business tax credits which make it easier to build.
What I was doing was bargaining down the poverty rate so
that we could get because we knew you get tax credits already
in very poor neighborhoods. So I wanted to bargain down so that
we could begin to deal with neighborhood strips.
In fact, what happened was that in bargaining down the
rate, it is better than the lowest rate that the Federal
Government often uses, but it turns out that it included
students in the District of Columbia. So students at Georgetown
and George University who, believe me, I did not have in mind,
got included in this.
So, Gallery Place, of course it had TIFF. It had some
things going for it.
I see this, and again these analogies are very rough, as
more like U Street. The only U Street had going for it was it
got the subway stop, and that has been important, and we have
seen development on U Street. I think we have seen some
development we like and we are very pleased with on U Street.
Were there ingredients along U Street, you think, besides
the subway that encouraged the development there?
Ms. Lang. I think so, and I will answer that by responding
to your earlier question. I think two of the big inhibitors
that we have in D.C. are the lack of a bigger plan and a
vision. We do deals. We do deals very well, and we had to do it
that way to reinvigorate and to get things going in the
downtown.
What we have not done particularly well--I was delighted to
hear all the discussion earlier--is an overall plan for the
city or for an area. I think we are starting to see that with
this project. So I think that is very key.
The other thing, Madam Chair, that we cannot lose sight of
and the thing that inhibits businesses from coming in, it is
very costly to do business in the District of Columbia, at
least one third more than our suburbs. So that is one of the
things that we face from the very beginning in terms of our tax
structure and things that you know so very well of not being
able to tax non-resident income. So that is a big inhibitor for
us.
Going to your question on U Street, I think that we have
seen certainly the resurgence and I think we have a balance of
the large national chains coming in. But the thing that I want
to make sure that we don't lose in any of the things that we
are doing is the local business community.
The larger chains can come in, and they can pay the larger
tax structure. They can because they can subsidize in other
ways and that certainly gives them the brand recognition that
they need.
Your smaller businesses don't have the ability to have
their concerns subsidized from another way. So we have to be
sure as we are doing any planning, that yeah, you need the
bigger, the name brands coming in, but you also want to make
sure the that local business community, those local brands, are
getting that same thing. It becomes a lot more expensive for
your local businesses to be able to afford that.
So I think that is part of what we have to make sure we
take advantage of in our planning and that we are able somehow
to offer subsidies and tax incentives to encourage those local
businesses, whether it is the local coffee shop, the local
pharmacy, the dry cleaner, whatever that is, and not the
national chains across the board.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Voudrie, I was very pleased to hear your
discussion of what you are about to do. Is it Four Points?
Somebody has owned that land for some time.
Why did you decide to develop this office space, retail
space and housing at this time?
Mr. Voudrie. Well, as Ms. Lang has said, it is expensive
for businesses to do business in the District comparatively to
the suburbs, and we saw an opportunity here where the close
proximity to the Navy Yard, the close proximity to downtown and
the relatively large track of land that we were able to
assemble gave us the opportunity to build office space in a
location that has that incredible proximity to the business
core but at a little bit lower price because of the reality
that the neighborhood has been under-served.
Ms. Norton. What business core?
Mr. Voudrie. It is close. It is very close. It is one metro
stop from the Navy Yard. We had started planning this before
DHS announced plans to locate at St. Elizabeth's.
But we are one metro stop from the Navy Yard. We are two
metro stops from L'Enfant Plaza. We are minutes from downtown.
We have multiple bridge access points. So, Anacostia, while it
has been under-served, I think now is the time for this type,
for a new type of development.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Voudrie, let me just inform you there are
some empty buildings on M Street. So I am not sure that
developers are going to cross the Anacostia. There are some
buildings. There was such over-building.
I think they are going to be filled. Indeed, GSA and the
B.I.D. and I are having a forum down there.
You haven't mentioned DHS. Do you believe DHS contractors
that we heard testimony are likely to want to be close to DHS
would want to?
Mr. Voudrie. I believe certainly that there are DHS
contractors that will want to locate here, and we see that as
an added benefit to developing in this area.
Navy Yard contractors, education users, D.C. Government
agencies as well, city agencies as well as Federal agencies
have expressed desire to locate here, and we are in discussions
with groups that will close to fill up our entire first phase
of the office space. So the demand for office is still strong
and is strong in this neighborhood.
Ms. Norton. What has been the reaction of the community to
your proposal?
Mr. Voudrie. The community, as we are hearing today, is
very concerned about the type of retail that is going to be
provided there, and the community wants to see a mix of
housing, not just affordable, for rent housing but for sale
housing for people across all economic levels.
But the primary thing that we are hearing is what are the
opportunities for retail. People in the neighborhood want to
see another grocery store. We have gotten a lot of good press
about the grocery that Giant opened.
Ms. Norton. Do you anticipate there will be a grocery
store?
Mr. Voudrie. We have. We are in discussions right now with
a number of grocers. We have a grocery store planned for our
first phase which we are hoping to have open by 2011. We do
have a location available for a grocery store as well as the
drugstore, which Ms. Lang mentioned, that is available not just
for people commuting to and from DHS but to serve the residents
of this community.
Ms. Norton. Your notion of office space provides some of
the daytime traffic Mr. Hopkins was talking about. Mr. Hopkins,
would you indicate to me what the status of_is this called the
Gateway Building?
Mr. Hopkins. Yes.
Ms. Norton. This is the building just as you cross the
bridge, Martin Luther King and Good Hope Road.
Mr. Hopkins. That is correct, 1800 Martin Luther King Jr.
Avenue. Madam Chairperson, the status is we are negotiating
with the District of Columbia to occupy the two office floors.
AEDC is moving its office to the first floor in the rear of the
building on sort of the northwest corner of the building. The
District Government should be in the building around August
after tenant build-out work for them is completed.
What we really are anxious to see happen is the planned
District's Department of Transportation that is proposed to
relocate from the Reeves Center on 14th Street and be on the
remaining space that is located at the site. That building
would be approximately 377,000\1\ square feet. It would have
about six floors, and the total population workforce is about
600 people and the average income is $50,000.\2\ So that is $30
million of potential disposal consumer income.
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\1\ Changed from 77,000 during editorial process.
\2\ Changed from $55,000 during editorial process.
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Ms. Norton. From whom? I am sorry. What was that tenant
again?
Mr. Hopkins. Department of Transportation, the District's
Department of Transportation.
Ms. Norton. I see.
Mr. Hopkins. I believe that the city will make an
announcement either by the end of this month or hopefully
during the first couple of months of next year as to who the
chosen developer is to build the building.
Ms. Norton. Ms. Lang mentioned a plan. I am not sure the
nature of the plan, but we know what the GSA is doing. We know
what its obligations are. Mr. Hopkins allows as he is already
seeking to provide services. We know about the planning
operations.
Mr. Hopkins, when you mention in your testimony that there
should be ways--you call them methodologies--during
construction to enhance participation by small and local
businesses in every facet of the planning. I believe Federal
regulations do require that.
But I want to know what the District should be doing, in
your view, with GSA or otherwise when we consider that this
large project is coming.
Mr. Hopkins. Well, it is interesting. The District, at one
time, was planning for proposed future uses on the east side
campus of St. Elizabeth's. They had the architectural firm of
RTKL and Associates. I joined that planning exercise and then I
guess after a few years everything stopped, but I am encouraged
now because I have been told recently by a gentleman from RTKL
that the city has hired them again to look at how to plan for
the east side campus revitalization.
I understand from hearing GSA today that they are in
discussions, working closely with the city, and I know they
have requested the city to provide space for parking. Well, if
the city creates those retail zones on the east side and you
have some parking opportunities for the west side employees to
park and they go back and forth, that certainly is going to
open up that east side campus, especially if it has retail
establishments there. Then there is a reason for people to
cross the street.
I really would like to see something done with that wall,
but again you have to fight the historic nature of the wall. So
it probably will remain.
There are certainly opportunities at the Milwaukee end of
the west side campus where you could put some less secure
facilities of DHS and maybe some retail opportunities, so
people in the community can frequent the West Campus and it
won't be so secure, so to speak.
So I think the city really has to move fast because you
don't want GSA to be so overly concerned with meeting the needs
of their employees and, if they cannot see what the city is
planning for the opposite side of the street, they will be
forced to look and attempt to locate retail facilities on the
West Campus. We really have to get the city out ahead of them.
I think if GSA did a survey of their personnel, it would be
helpful. It also would buttress the retailers' proposals to do
business because they will have access to those types of
surveys to justify to financiers that they have a good
proposal. So we can work together, certainly, to make that
work.
Ms. Norton. It is very important what you say about the
East Campus and the wall. You are right, Mr. Hopkins. If a
mission of the GSA is to preserve, is to do historic
preservation, that wall is not coming down.
But everybody, look. Look on M Street. That wall didn't
come down either. That is a similar wall along M Street, and it
just developed on the other side. It is more burdensome, but
here is the East Campus.
Now I can understand why you say this began some years ago.
They were looking at it. But you may have answered your
question. When they were looking for daytime traffic, they
probably didn't find it. Now you have it.
This is what I fear, and I think I share your fear. If
there is not a plan--Ms. Lang talked about a plan--beyond your
normal master plan of we want some retail, and we have a master
plan in the District. It deals with transportation and such. We
dealt with transportation. We have two subway stops. We are
going to have to deal with the streets.
But here you have I can only call it a campus because I
don't see it as anything else at this point. One needs to get
inside there. Some of that is going to have to be preserved.
Let's face it.
The part that we are all interested in is for daytime
traffic so that retail of various kinds and commercial
businesses will want to come, we know where we want it. But I
don't know of any plan, and that is what I am asking you.
Mr. Hopkins has indicated that there were some consultants
looking at it.
Mr. Hopkins. They are back again. The city has again
retained RTKL and Associates to do that.
We have to remember that both campuses are historic.
Ms. Norton. Exactly.
Mr. Hopkins. So we have to find what parcels along the east
side corridor can be made available for retail and development.
Ms. Norton. Do you know whether that has been done? Do you
know whether a survey of the campus has been done that would
indicate which parts of the campus are more suited for retail
and which must be maintained?
Mr. Hopkins. I believe RTKL has done that the first time
around, and the city just kind of gave up on it for whatever
reason.
Ms. Norton. Yes. Well, I think they gave up because even if
you did it, the daytime traffic notion comes in.
Look, this is going to be construction over years. The
Coast Guard is only the first building. One of the great
benefits of this construction is you don't just put up a
building and then there it all goes. There should be continuing
benefits to the community.
I would say probably 15, 20 years of construction. We don't
like construction, but at least it will be going on in the
inside, so the community won't be obstructed. But that's a
continuing revenue stream, and these people are going to move
in as the buildings come up.
Some of them are not going to want to come across the
Anacostia. Well, they are coming. If they want their jobs, they
are coming. And, they are not going to necessary want to come
out.
So, in a real sense, this is a marketing challenge for the
District of Columbia and the community, and I am anxious to see
the planning proceed afoot because the sooner we have it the
less problems we will have with the employees.
We will have some pushback from employees that can't do
anything about it. I have seen how that works. Some surly
people who are used to being downtown who are now going to find
themselves in downtown Ward 8, and we have to make sure that
that is, in fact, the kind of downtown our community, as well
as the employees, might want.
I want to inform all of you that I am having a hearing,
especially in light of your testimony, Mr. Hopkins, that small
businesses and so forth. Among the agencies under the
jurisdiction of our Committee are three agencies that do a
large amount of business with small businesses. You heard me
ask GSA, I want a breakdown for the District of Columbia.
FEMA, GSA, which is the grand-daddy of them all because it
does a lot of the procurement for the entire Federal
Government, DOD and those places. FEMA, GSA, EDA, I am going to
have a separate hearing on them, asking them to come in and
tell me where they are now, and I am going to be working with
them on small business opportunities for the District of
Columbia. Considering this large development, I will be
particularly focused on this development.
Now we have been able to negotiate an apprenticeship
program for certified apprenticeships in this region. It is a
little different from the pre-apprentice opportunities that
have been available in the District. Have any of those
opportunities been used in Ward 8?
Not the GSA opportunities, because they haven't been there,
but the pre-apprenticeship opportunities, have any of those
been used in Ward 8 to your knowledge?
Mr. Hopkins. They have been used where the development has
occurred either on city-owned land, and/or the development
project has received benefits from the city, and so it is a
requirement of the city that the GCs have an approved
apprenticeship program. But I am not aware of any Federal
contracting projects.
Ms. Norton. Did the District build that building?
Mr. Hopkins. Right. It was on District land. So we had an
apprenticeship program, our general contractor did.
Ms. Norton. I do want to indicate that we are talking about
maybe 20 years of construction. We have been talking about
business here. Jobs for people is going to be important to do.
I think part of what happened at the baseball stadium really
didn't have to do so much with this.
I really think there is something to the notion that when
people haven't had access to this kind of job--you are talking
about people going out in the heat and in the cold--very
special pre-apprenticeship programs have to be done. We will be
very much willing to work with the District and with the local
community to make sure that you don't come in and see all the
jobs there are not going.
After all, they are real people. The most immediate effect
they can get would be to get some jobs during construction.
They are not going to own anything, but they should get some
benefit immediately, and the construction is going to be going
on.
I want to ask Mr. Voudrie, have you begun to market?
I was very impressed with what you said about, goodness, a
grocery store. Have you begun to market the office space and
found tenants that are interested in office space?
Mr. Voudrie. We have begun marketing the office space that
is going to be in the first phase of our development.
Ms. Norton. There is what?
Mr. Voudrie. That will be in the first phase of our
development. So we are marketing to larger users that would be
interesting in a built-to-suit type of situation.
So we are in discussions with predominantly educational
users as well as a few government contractors at this point but
nothing that is able to be disclosed at this time. We don't
have any firm commitments yet. We are about two years off.
Ms. Norton. Well, I think what you are doing is very
ground-breaking and important, and I think it is going to be
successful and it is going to be ahead of the game.
Mr. Voudrie. Thank you.
Ms. Norton. Because I really do think it is going to happen
and that it will be important to have some space there and
people not just start to build when they think something is
going to happen at St. Elizabeth's. That is going to take time
too.
So I suppose I am in a rush. I am very pleased with how the
community has, for years now, thought about what kind of
development is needed.
So you are up and ready. You know a lot. I think the
questions and suggestions about surveys of Federal employees. I
would ask that you work with the District to get something more
official in the way of a survey of the community. I don't think
that that should be your mission because somebody should hire a
consultant to do that.
This is a community full of residents, full of residents on
either side of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Some of them, as
they see some development occur, for example, around the Giant,
may find, well, that is where we would go. Maybe Martin Luther
King Avenue isn't simply a repeat of what is in another part of
the ward.
So I think it would be useful for the Federal Government to
have some sampling of the kind I am going to ask GSA to get
from Federal employees about people would like to see. This
generic notion is helpful, but if we are talking about Federal
employees and the community, getting both of those straight
together is going to be important in light of the fact that
both are going to need to do it.
So we hear it is coming, a grocery store. I know you will
hear that time and time again.
Mr. Hopkins said something that I can almost guarantee you
is the case, that they shouldn't be doing a coffee house and
they shouldn't be doing a bookstore. I love this list of things
that they shouldn't be doing, establishments such as--I don't
know--fast food. Maybe if you all really want that on the
outside, you can have it.
Drugstores, you are not going to find that, and coffee
shops, bookstores. Those are inappropriate for inside a Federal
building.
Ms. Lang. Madam Chair?
Ms. Norton. Yes.
Ms. Lang. Just a couple of comments, one going back to your
comment on the local business and ensuring that a good bit of
this goes to local business, and I am delighted that you are
going to pursue that further.
I have not looked at numbers in the past year, but a year
ago when I looked at the Federal spending into the District of
Columbia, there was so little that it would not even register
on a graph. Now there is a lot going to the region but not to
the District of Columbia. So I just urge that we are able to
change that direction and primarily because local businesses
are the ones that will hire District residents first and
foremost.
As you may know I also chair the District's Workforce
Investment Council, and one of the things that we are focused
on is a workforce strategy for the city that will be ready in
March. We have done a lot of work in Ward 8 and working with
Council Member Barry and his staff because that is where we
have a major concentration of unemployed residents.
So how do we get them prepared for those jobs that will be
coming online not just in Ward 8 but all over the District? So
I think the key to this is making sure that local businesses,
at least in the District of Columbia, are getting a large
percent of the business that will be coming out of this
development.
Ms. Norton. Let me caution everyone particularly since we
have here those of you who aid small businesses. The Federal
Government is competitive. GSA has done a very good job within
that competitive system of getting minority and women and small
business. I know it. I have seen it here in the District of
Columbia.
But it does seem to me that the services you provide are
going to become more essential than ever, and I would like to
work with you to make sure that our folks who haven't had that
opportunity will know they now have it and can be prepared to
participate in these competitions. There is no way to get
around Federal Law and Federal competitions.
Now you will see the region is the grand master of
procurements and contracts. They have an extraordinary, highly
skilled workforce. The big contracting part of the United
States is in our region and yes, if you compare that to the
District, we will always be miniaturized compared to that.
But there is no question in my mind that with some
indication of how to compete, we can take advantage of this
extraordinary opportunity. Maybe it will provide us, Ms. Lang,
with the opportunity to have people understand that they should
be competing not only for this opportunity but for other
opportunities which are massive from the grand-daddy of them
all. The grand-daddy of contractors and procurers is the United
States Government.
Your testimony has been extraordinarily helpful to us in
our ongoing work to prepare for the coming of this new
headquarters. Please continue to be in touch with us and let us
know ways in which we can be helpful to you. Thank you again.
The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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