GSA Investing in Salt Lake City’s New Energy Future

New FBI Field Office to Be High-Performing Green Building; Expected to Create 500 Jobs

SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Tomorrow, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will break ground on the new Federal Bureau of Investigation field office building located at 5425 West Amelia Earhart Drive, Salt Lake City. Through projects just like this, GSA continues to invest in clean energy and create new jobs.

“GSA is leading the way on the use of innovative technology in buildings to cut energy usage, save money, and boost a new American energy industry," said Susan Damour, GSA's Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator. "Commercial real estate accounts for nearly 20 percent of U.S. energy use, making the sector one of the biggest opportunities for GSA to curb greenhouse gas emissions and build a 21st century, clean-energy economy.”

This project expects to use building materials that contain at least 30 percent recycled content. The building materials will also be comprised of matter that has been extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of the project site. Furthermore, it is expected to save or create more than 500 construction jobs, a great majority of which will be filled by the local community.

M.L. Harris & Company of Oklahoma City and KDC Development, a Dallas-based commercial real estate and investment firm, are joint venture development partners of this design-build project; they will share responsibilities for construction and management throughout the process. The architect is Rees Associates of Oklahoma City and the general contractor is VCC Construction of Atlanta. M.L. Harris and KDC Development are the owners and developers of the facility, and GSA—on behalf of the FBI—will lease space under a 20-year firm term.

“This is a significant occasion for the citizens of Utah, Montana, and Idaho, as well as the employees of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office," said James McTighe, special agent in charge. "The completion of this state-of-the-art, stand-alone facility will enhance the FBI’s ability to protect Americans from national security and criminal threats by increasing our efficiency and capacity to collaborate with our federal, state, and local partners. We are thankful to the GSA, M.L. Harris, and KDC Development for their work on this project and we look forward to its completion.”

The new building design is expected to achieve LEED® Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving overall performance. The building will be four stories tall, containing approximately 160,000 square feet. It will require more than 4,000,000 pounds of steel and 7,000 yards of concrete. The facility will showcase an ornamental staircase capped by a pyramid-shaped skylight, providing natural light deep into the interior of the building.

“Our goal is to create an environment that workers will appreciate and enjoy and look forward to being there. As a result, we hope to improve worker satisfaction and productivity. The facility will become a valuable asset for the FBI and greatly assist the FBI in meeting its mission,” said Mark Harris, principal and owner of M.L. Harris. This is M.L. Harris' sixth project for the FBI.

The FBI and GSA developed a 10-year acquisition program aimed at replacing or modernizing 39 FBI field offices and four major resident agency facilities across the country. The bulk of these projects are being accomplished through build-to-suit lease construction, including this project. The building will be located at 5425 West Amelia Earhart Drive and has a budget of $75 million dollars in construction and construction management fees. The project is expected to be complete late summer of 2012.

As the federal government's workplace solutions provider, the U.S. General Services Administration works to foster an effective, sustainable and transparent government for the American people. GSA’s expertise in government workplace solutions include:

Effective management of government assets, including more than 9,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 215,000 vehicles in the federal fleet, and preservation of historic federal properties;

Leveraging the government’s buying power through responsible acquisition of products and services, making up approximately 14 percent of the government’s total procurement dollars;

Providing innovative technology solutions to enhance government efficiency and increase citizen engagement; and

Promoting responsible use of federal resources through development of government-wide policies ranging from federal travel to property and management practices.

GSA Contact:

Sally Mayberry

303-236-2583/303-941-7637

sally.mayberry@gsa.gov