FBI to build new headquarters in Maryland: report

The FBI will build its new headquarters in Greenbelt, Md., abandoning downtown Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing "multiple people familiar with the decision."

The new facility would be built on a 61-acre plot near the Greenbelt Metro station, and become one of the primary fixtures of a proposed development that would include hotels, shops, and apartments. The site beat out other top contenders in Landover, Md., and Springfield, Va.

FBI headquarters is currently situated at the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, though the agency has long sought a larger building to bring together roughly 11,000 employees in the area. Earlier this year, the J. Edgar Hoover building was ranked the "ugliest" building in the U.S. in a Buildworld survey.

The reported decision is not likely to be the end of the matter, however, as the FBI has reportedly expressed concerns with the selection process, which has gone on for years.

Complicating the process were allegations that former President Donald Trump had opposed the FBI's move out of D.C. due to fear the site could be sold to a developer that might build a competing hotel to his own, the Trump International Hotel, which is now the Waldorf Astoria. Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz last month published a report determining that the Trump International Hotel played no part in the decision.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.