Federal Offices May Go To St. E's

"They are moving forward," she said. "As far as we know, they are wanting to do this and moving to get it done."

Russ Knocke, DHS spokesman, would not confirm that the department will consolidate at the St. Elizabeths site, saying only that the department is in the market for 6.5 million square feet. He also would not discuss whether the need to create a secure area would be a factor in a move to St. Elizabeths.

"The department's intention is to work closely with GSA to identify space requirements and possible locations that would be appropriate," he said. "We provide the GSA with our space requirements; it proposes possible solutions."

A spokeswoman for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said it has not been announced officially that the entire secure campus will be exclusively for DHS.

The west campus of St. Elizabeths is perhaps the city's most extraordinary tract of unused land. It also presents a development challenge for the federal government, because every inch is a national landmark, covered by the same level of historic protection as the White House.

In 2002, the hospital was named one of the 11 most-endangered places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

A GSA spokesman said that under the proposal, the 61 historic buildings that remain, which total 1.1 million square feet, would be restored and adapted for new uses as meeting space, an auditorium, a health club and an operations center. City officials have also pushed for retail space on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and public access to historic city overlooks.

While the federal government decides how to use the west side of the campus, the possibility of losing more federal tenants could send shudders throughout the region. In Northern Virginia, officials are still reeling from the decisions by the military base-closing commission.

For example, in Arlington County, Homeland Security leases more than 400,000 square feet in the old MCI headquarters for the Transportation Security Administration. The county also is home to the Homeland Security Institute, the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US-Visit program.

Terry Holzheimer, Arlington's director of economic development, said he did not know the details of any DHS consolidation plans.

Outside the historic red-brick walls of the St. Elizabeths campus, neighborhood activists are worried about a place they once hoped would be adapted for educational or employment uses.

Eugene DeWitt Kinlow, a Ward 8 community leader, said he fears that a large DHS presence would turn the campus into "a federal enclave -- a secure island."

"With all the heightened security," he said, "the campus will once again be a black hole, where nothing can penetrate to take advantage of views, no housing and, frankly, no jobs there that could support the community."

Staff writer Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.