WASHINGTON, DC-The federal government is taking 343,577 square feet of space through two separate recently inked deals, as reported in the Washington Business Journal. One is a lease of 285, 434 square feet at 425 Eye St., NW, for the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters operations, according to the Journal.

The Veterans Affairs department will move in June 2011. The lease has a 10-year term with termination rights after the seventh year. Paramount Group owns the building.

In a separate deal, the Journal reported that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, in the Health and Human Services Department, recently signed a 58,143-square-foot lease for a five-year term at Patriots Plaza II, located at 375 Eye St., NW.

Patriots Plaza II is a part of the $272-million, three-phase, one million-square-foot office complex owned by Multi-Employer Property Trust and developed and leased by Trammell Crow Co. Patriots Plaza I, a 280,001-square-foot class A office building, delivered in 2005 and is currently 100% leased to five US government agencies. The 321,502-square-foot Patriots Plaza II was constructed alongside Patriots Plaza III and delivered in October 2009.

Both II and III were developed on spec, Tim Finan, managing director with TCC, told GlobeSt.com in an earlier interview. In November, the firm inked a lease with the US Department of Agriculture for 330,000 square feet at the 380,087-square-foot Patriots Plaza III. Asking rates are between $45 per square foot to $50 per square foot, he said.