The Justice Department said Thursday that McLean-based Science Applications International Corp. has paid $11.75 million to settle allegations it charged inflated prices for a contract in New Mexico.

Under a deal with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, SAIC providing training for first responders on how to prevent and respond to terrorism attacks, according to the Justice Department. The U.S. government alleged that SAIC’s proposal said the company would employ more expensive personnel than it ended up using.

Metro board members will consider a development plan Thursday that would allow new apartments as well as office buildings or hotels to be constructed at the College Park Metro station near the University of Maryland.

The project has been in the works since at least 1999 and almost came to fruition when the agency and developers agreed to terms in 2005.

But there was uncertainty about where exactly a future Purple Line connection might be added and shortly thereafter the economy fell apart, killing the deal.

With Washington real estate back on the upswing — and cranes dotting Route 1 nearby — Metro’s real estate team has revived the project and proposed selling the parking lot between the train tracks and River Road to a team led by two developers, Fairfield Residential, based in San Diego, and Manekin, a firm with offices in Columbia and Baltimore.

Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan penned an angry letter to Dan Tangherlini, acting administrator of the General Services Administration, regarding the GSA announced the decision to relocate the headquarters of the National Science Foundation to the Eisenhower Avenue area of Alexandria in 2017.

The GSA says the move, which the City of Alexandria subsidized, will save the federal government $65 million over the 15-year term of the lease and another $35 million in relocation costs provided by the developer, a unit of Hoffman Development Inc.

Donnellan asks that the GSA “continue negotiations” so that Arlington can be reconsidered. She said she was confident that the “stay-in-place option provides the lowest cost and highest value option for the federal government.”

Read Donnellan’s entire letter here.

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After an aggressive pursuit by Alexandria City Mayor Bill Euille, the National Science Foundation plans to relocate to Eisenhower Avenue from Ballston. (Gee James - Capitol Media USA) The federal government plans to relocate the National Science Foundation from Ballston to the Eisenhower Avenue area of Alexandria in 2017, in what would constitute one of the largest transfers of federal workers in Northern Virginia since the Patent and Trademark Office departed Crystal City for Alexandria in 2005.

Headed by acting director Cora B. Marrett, the NSF is an independent agency that funds a wide array of science and engineering research. It is among the largest employers in Arlington with more than 2,100 headquarters employees, contractors and scientists.

After a competitive search, the General Services Administration announced Friday that it had selected developers of Hoffman Town Center, a 56-acre development just inside the Capital Beltway, for a 15-year, 660,848-square-foot headquarters lease for NSF.

The new headquarters is to be built on parking lots next to the AMC Hoffman Center 22 movie theater, a short walk from the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station. Eventually the developer, a unit of Hoffman Development Inc., plans 7 million square feet of offices, apartments, hotel rooms and retail.

The deal was highly sought after by Alexandria, Arlington and other jurisdictions not only because of NSF’s high-level staff but because it draws more than 60,000 visitors every year, many of them serving on scientific review panels. The foundation had a $7 billion fiscal 2012 budget.

As reported Wednesday, Donald and Ivanka Trump have finalized a deal to lease the Old Post Office for 60 years and redevelop it into a luxury hotel.

Construction could start in the first quarter of 2014 and the hotel is likely to open in late 2015 or early 2016.

Under the agreement, the Trumps will pay a base rent of $3 million a year, with increases linked to changes in the consumer price index. The government will begin collecting rent either eight months after construction begins or 20 months after the lease’s signing, whichever comes first.

To give the government additional protection, Donald Trump also agreed to provide a $40 million personal guaranty as well as what is commonly called a “bad acts” guaranty, covering situations involving fraud, misconduct or failure to pay taxes.

You can read details of the agreement as it was sent to Congress and see renderings of the project here.

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