By Carten Cordell – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal
Aug 19, 2021, 1:59pm EDT
The Army is weighing a massive expansion of development on the north portion of Fort Belvoir, including a possible new Intelligence Community campus to be constructed near the existing National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters.
According to a presentation outlining the potential redevelopment to the National Capital Planning Commission, the Army has drafted a master plan with four development zones within the Fort Belvoir North Area (FBNA), an 804-acre noncontiguous area two miles northwest of the military base’s main post and sandwiched between Backlick Road and the Fairfax County Parkway.
The FBNA, formerly known as the U.S. Army Engineer Proving Ground of Fort Belvoir, is home to the 2.3 million-square-foot, $1.7 billion NGA headquarters, which opened in 2011. The draft master plan presents several options to further develop the site alongside the agency.
There are three versions of the plan ranging from minimal development to maximum capacity. The preferred alternative, per the presentation, is for "maximum expansion capacity with anticipation of future tenants."
"The intent is to provide DoD decision makers the understanding of what potential infrastructure may fit at FBNA," the presentation states. "It provides a guide for development patterns to ensure an organized, walkable campus comes to fruition as tenants plan construction."
Included in all three versions is the addition of a 116,206-square-foot, six-story Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters annex, which would include a visitors center and utility building and be paired alongside a 129,465-square foot parking structure. Both would be located on a 67-acre site adjoining the NGA.
he Department of Defense referred questions to the DIA. The Washington Business Journal has reached out to the DIA for details on the proposed plans and will update when we hear back.
That same 67-acre site could also include a 189,000-square-foot Defense Logistics Operations Center (DLOC), while a 36,000-square foot undisclosed tenant facility and a 2,000-square-foot fire station would be established on two other sites within the FBNA as part of the development plan.
While those elements are in all versions of the draft master plan, the maximum capacity version also includes numerous unidentified "capacity plan" buildings and parking structures across the 67-acre site — forming, with the NGA headquarters, what the plan deems a new Intelligence Community campus — while additional buildings would be added across two more development zones north and south of Barta Road, near Rolling Road.
The plans also call for the addition of roadways and a bridge to help manage traffic flow.
Fort Belvoir has undergone explosive growth as a direct result of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's 2005 recommendations. By 2014, it had reached on-base employment of 40,000, but that was expected to grow to 57,636 by 2030 and as many as 80,000 by 2040. The vast majority of Fort Belvoir's 8,500 acres are located to the south of the FBNA.
The Intelligence Community campus concept, meanwhile, is not new, nor would this be the region's first. The NGA's former Bethesda headquarters at 4600 Sangamore Road was converted into one in 2015, for the relocation of up to 3,000 intelligence community professionals. The NCPC had reviewed that plan three years earlier.
A spokesperson for the National Capital Planning Commission said in an email that the staff report with the executive director’s recommendation will be posted on its website Aug. 27. The commission will review the plans at its Sept. 2 meeting.
