When the lease was signed in December 2006 MPD planned to moveits evidence storage, violent crimes, narcotics and specialinvestigation, special operations, the superintendent ofdetectives, MPD Headquarters and the First District Station to thenew digs. All together some 1,100 employees would have moved underthe terms of the 20-year lease, according to GVA Advantis data.

Since then, according to Lars Etzkorn, director of the DC Officeof Property Management, the District has determined that thetransaction would be too expensive. "Fortunately we realized beforeit was too late that forcing three dissimilar police functions inthis building--a local police station and its cell-block, awarehouse for secure evidence storage along with regular officespace--is not cost effective," he says in a statement. "Inaddition, we have found the facility to be inconsistent with theadjacent neighborhood. OPM is now studying the future of thebuilding."

Tonya L. Ginter, CCIM and director of Research & Marketingfor GVA Advantis tells GlobeSt.com that rising rental rates aremaking the District increasingly expensive--too expensive in somecases--for many businesses and institutions. "Even in Southeast itis no longer cost effective for many types of operations," shesays. According to Ginter, average rents in the District haveincreased to $44.97 per sf from $42.74 per sf, just 12 months.