FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that the bureau has finalized a plan to permanently close down the J. Edgar Hoover building and move its headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building just a few blocks away in downtown Washington, D.C.

The FBI and General Services Administration announced they had selected the Ronald Reagan Building as the bureau's new headquarters in July, after Republicans raised concerns about the cost of moving the headquarters to Maryland.

Patel did not give a timeline for when the old building would close and the transfer to the Reagan building would be completed, but highlighted that the move is expected to save American taxpayers at least $5 billion.

"After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility," Patel said on X. "Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could.

"When we arrived, taxpayers were about to be on the hook for nearly $5 billion for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035," he continued. "We scrapped that plan. Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already underway. 

"Once complete, most of the HQ FBI workforce will move in, and the rest are continuing in our ongoing push to put more manpower in the field, where they will remain," he added. 

The headquarters has been located in the J. Edgar Hoover building since 1975, but the building has been plagued by structural issues for the last 20 years, prompting the long search for a new home. 

The new FBI headquarters was previously home to the U.S. Agency for International Development until the Trump administration consolidated it earlier this year into the State Department, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection moved in.