FBI begins hunt for new headquarters IT
The FBI is considering what IT systems it will need in its new Washington, D.C.-area headquarters.
It issued a request for information last week to gain better insight into the IT and audio-visual networks on the market that may fit its needs in its new headquarters building, for which President Barack Obama requested $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2017. The administration hopes to break ground on the new site in the upcoming fiscal year at one of three possible locations — Springfield, Virginia, and Landover and Greenbelt, Maryland — bringing the 11,000 FBI personnel from offices throughout the capital region together at one location.
In the new solicitation, the bureau said it’s hoping to “obtain information that may lead to the selection of a business partner with in-house capability to design, construct and maintain all aspects of advanced turnkey IT and AV networks solutions and systems including but not limited to network architecture design; backbone/distribution cabling design & construction; data center design & construction; advanced PDS solutions; satellite communication systems; fully integrated audio visual systems, Cable television (CATV) systems; security networks including access control & building management systems; wireless technologies; and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone networks.”
In particular, the FBI is looking to work with a vendor “with specific and relevant expertise in ‘cradle to grave’ IT facility design & construction services including operations and maintenance” at facilities “in excess of one million [rentable square feet] in the past seven years of at least 2,500 employees on a single campus,” the RFI says.
The RFI says work on the headquarters IT will begin Jan. 1, 2017, and the type of contract it uses will be determined by responses to the solicitation.
On behalf of the FBI, the General Services Administration issued a request for proposals in January to a handful of pre-vetted developers. Congress already approved $390 million for the project in the 2016 omnibus bill. In addition to the nearly $1.8 billion total that would be dedicated to the project if Congress approves the White House’s request, the federal government plans to exchange the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the highly sought after current home of the FBI in downtown D.C., with the developer as part of the payment for the new property.
“The Administration is committed to acquiring a consolidated new headquarters facility for the FBI, a member of the intelligence community,” Bill Dowd, GSA’s manager of the project, said in a press release. “The consolidated headquarters facility will allow the FBI to perform its critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement missions in a new modern and secure facility.”
FedScoop did not receive comment from the FBI on its IT plans for the headquarters prior to publication.
The FBI is accepting responses to the RFI until April 12.
