Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Gov. Wes Moore met with General Services Administration leaders and the FBI to discuss relocating the FBI headquarters to either Greenbelt, Landover or Springfield, Virginia Wednesday.
The meeting comes after growing calls from Prince George’s County leaders to relocate the FBI headquarters to Prince George’s County instead of Fairfax County, Virginia. Advocates for the move said Fairfax County has already received disproportionate amounts of federal investment, and Prince George’s County would provide diversification and increased transit opportunities.
The FBI headquarters is currently located in the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest Washington, D.C. The GSA proposed to move the building during former President Barack Obama’s administration — finalists for the move included Greenbelt, Landover and Springfield, Virginia. During the Trump administration, the selection process was put on hold and restarted during the Biden administration.
[Greenbelt presents the best possible location for the new FBI headquarters]
The GSA initially said it would focus on access to transit, cost and environmental impact when selecting the new site. However, in September, the organization changed the selection criteria to include proximity to the Quantico agency academy. The new criteria would put Springfield, Virginia in Fairfax County at an advantage, but Maryland advocates are continuing to push for more conversations with the GSA.
Between 2008 to 2023, Prince George’s County received more than $121 billion in federal spending whereas Fairfax County received more than $460 billion. When the federal government located the Pentagon on the west bank of the Potomac, it prioritized investment in Virginia.
“Virginia in general got a disproportional amount of both private sector and government investment over the past few decades,” District 3 College Park City Council member Stuart Adams said. “[The headquarters] would help balance the job opportunities across the D.C. region.”
Federal job centers have driven job and income growth in Prince George’s County, and decisions about where to locate them have historically advantaged majority communities over minority communities like ours, Alsobrooks said in an email. Prince George’s County has 29,720 federal jobs, while Fairfax has more than 48,000.
[College Park City Council endorses FBI headquarters’ relocation to Greenbelt]
“I believe Governor Moore’s views that it does improve racial equity,” College Park resident Tom Litke said. “Prince George’s County has historically seen itself as disadvantaged and is sometimes competing for these larger economic engines.”
If the headquarters relocated to Greenbelt, it would help maintain a local tax base and continue investment in the area, according to Adams. The FBI headquarters will bring stability and growth in federal and private sector office space to Prince George’s County, he said.
Litke supports a high quality of life and a good working environment for the future and current employees at the FBI.
“We’d like to see it in Greenbelt or Landover,” Litke said. “We support the mission of the FBI and so as part of the broader DMV interest in keeping jobs here and keeping community.”
