Washington mayor seeks new FBI offices

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Federal parkland in the Poplar Point section of Washington could be used for the FBI's new headquarters, District of Columbia Mayor Vincent C. Gray said.

The 110-acre site on the Anacostia River, across from the city's new baseball stadium, is under consideration for a soccer stadium, hotel and other mixed-use development but Gray is preparing to promote the site as the FBI's new headquarters, The Washington Post reported.

The benefit to the city would be the retention of thousands of government jobs and a prestigious federal tenant within the city, at the expense of tax-generating private businesses, Washington Post writer Mike Debonis said in his "District of Debonis" blog.

"Poplar Point might be the least bad of all possible D.C. locations for the agency. Question is, how hard will Gray, the D.C. Council and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton fight to actually make it happen?" he wrote.

The FBI has had its headquarters at the block-sized J. Edger Hoover Building in Washington since September 1975.

The bureau has been considering a move for several years with officials from various localities in the region lobbying to have the headquarters, and its thousands of employees, in their area.