NOAA Office a Bellwether for DC Building Trends

ROCKVILLE, MD-Skanska USA will be finishing a long-stalled government office building in Prince Georges County, MD. The project, the 268,000-square-foot office building and lab space for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had been mired down by Opus East’s bankruptcy and complicated further by cost overruns and changes to the original design plans. The project moved forward after the lender, Bank of America, decided to kick in the necessary remaining construction finance, the Wall Street Journal has reported. It is, in short, the antithesis of how most federal construction projects unfold here.

For Skanska, though, the project is very typical in that the company aggressively pursues federal contracts, Dave Coleman, project executive on NOAA, tells GlobeSt.com. "I would say this is one of the largest we are doing so far for the government this year in this region." The project is a $45-million value for Skanska.

That said, Coleman also notes that the federal sector is starting to slow down in terms of development work, just as the private sector steps up its pace. The area, it seems, is nearing an inflection point where the government—with its tightly-stretched budget—is stepping back from its traditional role of buttressing the DC area’s real estate market. In the meanwhile, though, the private sector has revved up enough to potentially make up the slack. Skanska, for example, is building two spec office buildings in the area. One is at 1776 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, VA, which it is building to LEED Platinum specifications and the other is at 733 10th St. in Washington, DC.

Not that the region is leaving the scars of the last two years behind. Opus East’s collapse left several half-finished projects in its wake. Skanska has also been tapped to restart its construction on another DC project, 1015 Half St., SE.

Work on the NOAA building is scheduled to finish in March 2012. The four-story building will serve as NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction and include general office space, laboratories, a data center, a 500-seat auditorium, a four-story atrium and stand-alone parking garage.