Top Federal Officials Addressing Norton's Town Hall Meeting on New DHS Proposal (10/21/08)

to Spur MLK Avenue Retail

October 21, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) town hall meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 5:30 p.m., at the Petey Green Community Center, 2907 Martin Luther King Avenue, SE, will focus on the expansion of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters to include the East as well as West campuses, the specifics of the "win-win" for the federal government and the District of Columbia, and the first contract expected to be let in February. Norton got the first $100 million appropriation of the $500 million that was authorized for the first construction, just before congressional recess in October. The initial plan Norton rolled out to the community in 2006 limited construction of the West campus, but the top federal official Elaine Duke, Under Secretary for Management at the Homeland Security Department, and James Williams, Acting Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), will describe the federal decision to negotiate with D.C. officials for expansion now to include one of the DHS agencies to be located on the East Campus. D.C. officials will tell how the federal move to the East campus will benefit the city's small area plan. Federal and D.C. officials will receive comments and questions from residents.

Norton, the chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, which has oversight over GSA, the agency that will build the headquarters said, "The East campus decreases the density on the West campus for DHS and increases retail and commercial opportunities on the East campus for D.C. The presence of a federal agency on the East campus is expected to jump start the District's plans for the East campus and bring the quality retail the community has sought for decades."

At a public hearing last year on local business opportunities likely to come with the new DHS headquarters, Ward 8 and business community leaders urged the Congresswoman to get GSA to consider the East side, as well, because it easily accommodates retail. The DHS construction will mark the first time the federal government has located a major federal agency east of the Anacostia River. The headquarters will be a compound of half a dozen agencies, and will be the largest federal construction project since the Pentagon in 1943. The federal development is expected to help revitalize Martin Luther King Avenue, one of the District's main thoroughfares.