FBI Puts New HQ on Hold

From Boston Business Journal:

FBI delays search for new HQ, renews current lease

by Michelle Hillman

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is slowing down its hunt for a new, 250,000-square-foot headquarters and is keeping its plans a secret.

Besides pushing the deadline for the second round of proposals back about a month, the government agency has renewed its lease for 100,000 square feet at Center Plaza near Boston’s Government Center, according to sources. The 3 1/2-year lease was renewed with its current landlord, Equity Office Properties Trust, and is meant to be a short-term fix until the agency decides where it will move, said a real estate source with knowledge of the lease.

The FBI previously considered development sites on D Street and at Channel Center in Boston’s Fort Point Channel, but neither of those sites are in the running, according to real estate sources. Calls to the Boston office of the U.S. General Services Administration, which is in charge of the FBI’s search, did not return repeated calls for comment.

“There’s really no discussion going on with the FBI,” said Richard Galvin, president of Commonwealth Ventures LLC, which owns Channel Center. Galvin declined to comment any further.