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by Stephen Barr
Washington Post
Monday, December 04, 2006
Four buildings are up and occupied. Three more buildings are under construction. Another is on the drawing board. Three other projects are on a waiting list.
The headquarters consolidation of the Food and Drug Administration, on 130 acres in suburban Maryland, appears on track to become one of the government's most successful construction and development projects.
"The project is going beautifully," Betsy L. Bretz, chairman of Labquest, a community group that has kept close watch over the site. "They have been good neighbors, and they are doing this responsibly."
When the project is completed, probably in 2011, about 7,700 FDA employees and contract workers will be located at White Oak, off New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring. Congress estimates the General Services Administration, which owns the property and is managing the construction, will spend about $900 million on buildings and site improvement.
Dave Dwyer, FDA's director for the headquarters consolidation, calls the project "the future of the FDA" because it will bring together scientists, researchers and safety experts who have been scattered in more than 40 buildings across Maryland and the District, often in offices in poor condition.
The project was authorized by Congress in 1990 and picked up some steam five years later, when the Defense Department began a round of base closings and decided to close a Navy laboratory for naval surface warfare research at White Oak.
"Everyone had a million ideas of what to do with the property," Bretz said.
But community and redevelopment representatives soon focused on the FDA, she said, largely because residents thought the nation needed a world-class complex where FDA employees could more easily collaborate and share ideas on how to protect Americans' health.
The decision to recruit the FDA to White Oak set off a decade-long struggle to obtain funding for planning, design and construction. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Rep. Steny H. Ho yer, both Maryland Democrats with seats on appropriations committees, began making the case for Congress to fund the project, joined by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.), other members of Congress and state officials. Local officials, in particular, were eager to retain a well-paid and highly educated workforce and hoped the FDA would attract high-tech companies to the Route 29 corridor near White Oak.
Funding for the project came in fits and starts, as is often the case when Congress has competing budget priorities. For example, the fiscal 2007 appropriation for White Oak -- $178.5 million -- is on hold until Congress determines how to revive spending bills that have stalled in the lame-duck session.
Still, the project has gained momentum through the years.
In October 2003, the FDA opened the first White Oak building -- a four-story life sciences lab for 100 employees that includes drug evaluation and research facilities. That was followed by the opening of two office buildings in August 2005 for 1,600 employees.
The latest opening came in September -- a "shared-use" building available to all employees. It features a conference center for large meetings, a dozen conference rooms, a consolidated library, a cafeteria, fitness center and credit union.
At the end of March, Dwyer said, the FDA plans to open an engineering and physics lab. Two other office buildings have been scheduled for openings in March 2008 and May 2009.
Also in the works are offices for the FDA commissioner and the agency's office of regulatory affairs, with a construction contract scheduled to be granted at the end of September. Starting in fiscal 2008, the FDA hopes to win congressional support for funding of two more life sciences labs and another office building.
"GSA is building on time and on budget," Dwyer said. "It's as good a GSA team as I have ever worked with."
Shapour Ebadi, a 20-year GSA employee, has been the GSA's project executive since 1994. Dwyer, who has nearly 30 years of experience in construction and facilities management, joined the project as the FDA representative in February.
The two agencies are looking at how to address traffic issues that seem likely to arise as more employees relocate to White Oak in coming months. To help employees who prefer mass transit and to hold down traffic, FDA has started a shuttle service to Metro subway stops and to FDA offices in Rockville, about 10 miles away. The GSA is looking for alternative entrances to the White Oak site in hopes of easing traffic at the primary entrance on New Hampshire Avenue.
After all, White Oak will probably be the FDA's home for several decades. "As best we can," Dwyer said, "we are trying to think for now, and for a minute from now."
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