With HHS Lease Reaffirmed, NIAID is on Deck for Twinbrook

Twinbrook’s future as a hub for federal facilities will get its second boost in three days as JBG Companies breaks ground on the new National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases building on Fishers Lane on Wednesday morning.

On Monday, the U.S. Government Accountability Office denied the final protests of three developers seeking to move the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services out of the Parklawn Building, The Washington Post reported.

In March, the U.S. General Services Administration to JBG to keep HHS and its 3,000 employees in the building on Fishers Lane near the Twinbrook Metro station. The developer is spending $270 million to renovate 932,391 square feet of office space in the building so that HHS can consolidate four offices there.

In June, the GAO upheld the protests by the developers, who argued that GSA had improperly evaluated offers for the lease, Washington Business Journal reported. Two of the developers—One Largo Metro LLC and Metroview Development Holdings LLC—sought to move the federal facility to Prince George’s County. Another—King Farm Associates LLC—proposed a site near the Shady Grove Metro station.

On Monday, Ralph O. White, GAO’s managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said in a statement that his agency had concluded that “GSA evaluated offers in the way it had outlined in the solicitation, and properly considered the relative merits and prices of the proposals in making its selection decision” in favor of JBG and the Parklawn Building, The Washington Post reported.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) will join GSA officials and representatives of JBG on Wednesday morning to break ground on a 10-story, 491,000-square-foot building next to the Parklawn Building on Fishers Lane. part of the National Institutes of Health, from Bethesda to Twinbrook. The building is scheduled for completion in 2014. 

JBG’s development inside and outside the Rockville city limits in Twinbrook includes several office and biotech buildings totaling nearly 1 million square feet and 2.2 million square feet of offices, retail and housing known as Twinbrook Station.