CLARIFICATION: This story’s photo caption has been updated to reflect that the National Agricultural Library is not a building facing closure near College Park.

Some College Park officials are preparing to support residents and businesses who could be hurt by the shuttering of several federal facilities nearby.

The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center is set to vacate its property, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in July. The Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction near College Park are also facing major staffing cuts.

The city is preparing for less movement in its business scene and fewer people visiting after thousands have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs, said College Park economic development director Michael Williams. Some people are also being relocated, he added, which could also hurt the city in the next few months.

“One job loss or 100 job losses, we’re always concerned about the impacts of less people visiting the city for whatever the reasons are,” Williams said. “There’s such a fall off.”

The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center is slated to vacate its 6,600-acre campus. The move is part of a broader federal effort to relocate employees outside the Washington, D.C., region, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this summer.

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This is a loss for College Park, Beltsville and the entire country, College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said, and local businesses are likely to suffer.

“There are 2,600 jobs which are at stake, and many of the jobs are performed by our community members, our residents, so they are directly impacted and their livelihoods are impacted,” Kabir said.

Employees will be moved to one of USDA’s five locations nationwide to bring them “closer to the people it serves while also providing a more affordable cost of living for USDA employees,” a department news release read.

Kabir said incorporating some or all of the USDA land into College Park city limits, a process called annexation, could help preserve the area. The space could be used to help the city’s sustainability goals and support green space, he added.

The College Park City Council discussed annexation plans during a Sept. 9 meeting, including pulling the land that the agricultural center currently sits on into city limits.

“For me, I look at it … as having a seat at the table,” mayor pro tem and District 4 council member Denise Mitchell said during the Sept. 9 discussion. “To be able to look at ourselves as players when there’s opportunities to leverage ourselves, and this is a key one right now.”

The property is one of several federal complexes in the area that face major cuts or closures.

The Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt will also lose more than 600 senior employees due to efforts from the Trump administration to shrink the federal workforce. More than 2,100 senior NASA employees were set to leave the agency in July after being offered early retirement, buyouts and deferred resignations by the agency.

In March, the Trump administration also announced plans to cancel dozens of leases for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s offices, including the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in the discovery district.

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The agency in March laid off more than 1,000 workers, which is 10 percent of its workforce, the Associated Press reported.

“By the time October or November comes around, we should start seeing the residents that are here really reach out for assistance,” Williams said. “We’ll just have to see what the impacts are once those folks and their benefits expire.”

The FBI announced in July that it would not move its headquarters to the Greenbelt location that was selected by the General Services Administration in 2023.

After the FBI decided to keep its headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) introduced an amendment to block Justice Department funding unless the bureau moved to Greenbelt. The amendment passed with bipartisan support, but was later removed from the bill.

Though some local leaders had hope for the building to come to the area, Kabir said the FBI headquarters project is now “most likely not going to happen.”

“The only thing the community can do is to delay things further along in the future, so that if there is a new administration in three years that might change the course,” Kabir said.

Williams said the city is preparing to help residents affected by the federal changes.

“I’ll be looking for our leadership really to help identify what those asks will be of the affected College Park residents,” Williams said.