The largest federal construction job since the Pentagon in the 1940s is expected to create 16,000 construction jobs involving 100 contractors over the next six years.
On the west side of the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., a new federal campus for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be built. DHS announced back in 2007 that it would spend approximately $3.5 billion to move its headquarters and most of its D.C.-based offices to a new 4.5 million-square-foot facility on the site. DHS hopes to consolidate at least 60 of its facilities at St. Elizabeth’s and to save millions per year in rental costs. Twenty-two federal agencies will be moving into there.
In the end, 14,000 DHS workers who will come and go every weekday to the Homeland Security campus. The area could become another Crystal City of federal contractors hoping to snag a piece of the $17 billion Homeland Security budget. Some contractors that are working at the site, or see opportunities to sell DHS computers, software or other products, are looking to rent office space nearby, according to a few real estate brokers.
