TSA to Move Headquarters to Alexandria

The Transportation Security Administration will move its headquarters from Arlington, Virginia, to an office building in neighboring Alexandria, the General Services Administration announced Wednesday.

The move, which is scheduled to take place in 2017, will save taxpayers $15 million over the life of the 15-year lease on the new facility, GSA officials said. They said the negotiated rent on the new space is 25 percent below projected market rates.

TSA will move to the Victory Center, a vacant office building at the west end of Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria. The agency will stay at its current headquarters until the full build-out of the new facility is completed. TSA will eventually occupy 625,000 square feet of space at the Victory Center.

About 3,400 employees work at TSA headquarters. According to the city of Alexandria, those jobs will represent a 4 percent increase in the city’s workforce.

“GSA’s decision to locate the TSA headquarters at Victory Center is a huge economic boost for Alexandria as a whole, and for the West End in particular,” said William D. Euille, the city’s mayor.

The new lease “allows TSA to consolidate four locations into one rental rate and utilization rate that will ensure that the agency is more efficient and effective in executing its mission,” said Darren Blue, commissioner of the National Capital Region of GSA’s Public Buildings Service.

TSA will join the National Science Foundation (whose new headquarters is under construction)  and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as federal agencies with a major presence in Alexandria.