950 H St NW, Suite 912 (The article below says they moved into a new building at 1111 18th St. NW)
Washington, DC 20223
Phone: 202-406-5800
Apprx. Coords- -77.04150 38.90395 (for address in article below)
Both Terraserver and Google plot to the same address given below in the article, but that building has much more than just 6 floors. Did they go ahead and add more floors?
I have multiple addresses for this site. From an article in the Washington Business Journal, an new building was built for the Uniformed Division, but I don't know if the entire SS will be housed in it. Although the article is from 1999, I would assume the building has been completed by now. The article is located at http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/1999/06/14/focus9.html?t=printable, but I provide it in its entirety just in case it should disappear from the Internet:
Secret Service's new building designed to grow
Linda Klinger
Contributing Writer
The future home of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division is now under construction at 1111 18th St. NW, where a four-story, 100,000-square-foot office building was demolished to prepare for the new structure.
The Secret Service has committed to a 20-year lease of the entire 72,250-square-foot building, which will be six stories high, have windows on three sides and include two levels of underground parking. Construction is under way and is expected to be completed by June 2000.
Lack of space at 13th and L streets -- the present location of the Uniformed Division -- made the move necessary.
"The old building needed expansion, but that structure couldn't accommodate the additions necessary," said Art Turowski, deputy assistant regional administrator for the General Services Administration.
The structure incorporates the option of someday adding five stories to its height and more than doubling the square footage to 137,750 square feet, said Steve Lustgarten, executive vice president of Blake Real Estate.
Blake, which worked with the Secret Service on a previous project, is serving as developer and property manager for the building.
"We designed an expandable building," said Lustgarten. "We're constructing the parking garage with an underground link to another parking facility on the same block, so that also can be expanded someday if needed."
Savings expected
How much will this planning save over the long term?
"It will speed future construction, make it easier to add floors, ensure feasibility of expansion and of course save money," said Lustgarten, although it's difficult to quantify savings, as these would be realized in dollar values many years from now.
Development costs for the project are $18 million, excluding ground. There are additional costs involved in building an expandable structure, said Turowski, but they're marginal. The annual cost of the 20-year lease will be $2.89 million.
This is the first Secret Service pro-ject on which the 55-year-old Weihe Design Group has worked. Roger Strass-man, partner in the Washington-based architectural firm and partner-in-charge of this project, said the agency had several preconditions that, for a property within the city, were very difficult to meet.
"The agency had done research and determined that they needed a certain specific square footage of space. No property in town had that exact measurement of space. But the agency would not accept less and would not pay for more," Strassman said. "They also would not take any part of a building -- they needed a structure for which they'd be the only tenant."
In addition, they also needed to park a number of cars at the site.
Strassman said that his firm and Blake Real Estate discovered a building that could be renovated, but it wouldn't meet the space and parking requirements. After further investigation, they decided the best approach would be to tear down the building and design it to the needs of the Secret Service.
They also designed it for future tenants as well.
"There is a certain allowable density to build on any piece of land in the District," Strassman said. "Because land is valued as to how much rentable square feet is available, commercial developers obviously want to develop each property to its maximum capacity and not underbuild."
The building will eventually hold 227 Secret Service employees, who will start moving in summer of 2000. It's considered a 24-hour structure, where staff will use the facility at all hours of the day and night.
Security needs
The Uniformed Division is the "police force" of the Secret Service, whose agents wear uniforms and carry firearms, and whose sole mission is protection.
In addition to providing protection for the White House and its grounds, the force also provides services that support the protection of other presidential offices, the main Treasury building and annex, the president and members of the first family, the District of Columbia residence of the vice president and diplomatic missions in the area and across the nation and within its territories.
Many federal agencies must consider security requirements unnecessary when building or leasing an office structure for other commercial means. Although the Secret Service's concerns about espion-age can't compare with the scope of covert operations of such agencies as the Central Intelligence Agency and Nation-al Security Agency, security remains a high priority for the Uniformed Division.
"Our most important consideration in leasing a new building was that we not share a building with private tenants," Turowski said.
Gary Caruso, regional director of public affairs for the General Services Administration, said ensuring the Secret Service was the sole tenant immediately eliminated several security problems. No special technology requirements are needed, although this agency prefers the installation of rooftop antennas. Confi-dentiality concerns prohibited Caruso and Turowski from detailing other security features, but Lustgarten talked about the requirements for other government buildngs.
"Government facilities in general are built with certain blast-resistant features. Concrete superstructures and the glass used, for example, are different than in most buildings. To address this building's requirements, the special properties of the glass will make it 10 percent to 15 percent more costly than standard glass," said Lustgarten.
Bollards -- strong posts -- will be installed near the sidewalk to prevent vehicles from driving into the building.
Blake was one of several contenders for the project and won the competitive bid process due primarily to price and qualitative factors, Caruso said.
"They also had an good track record, and their convenient location was a plus," he said.
Girard Engineering serves as project engineer and SKA is the structural engineer.
The project lender is 1st Union Bank, and the building is owned by Jack I. Bender & Sons.
"The government is doing a great job on the interior planning aspect. With their cooperation, all milestones are so far on target," said Lustgarten.
Blake Real Estate was founded by Jack I. Bender 40 years ago. David Bender is current president -- the third generation of the family to manage the company.