The director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, has announced the permanent closure of the historic federal police headquarters named after J. Edgar Hoover—the agency’s first director, who served for nearly 50 years—and the relocation of its staff to the former offices of the defunct U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we have finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover Building headquarters and move employees to a secure and modern facility. Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could,” Patel stated in a message on his X account.
In this way, the FBI director has ruled out the construction of a new headquarters, which was estimated to cost $5 billion (approximately €4.45 billion) and projected, according to Patel, for completion in 2035. The high cost and the delay until the future building could actually be used ultimately tipped the scales in favor of the Reagan Building, the former USAID headquarters.
“We opted for the existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately, with the necessary security and infrastructure upgrades already underway,” Patel said, adding that the duration of these renovations will determine the date of the FBI staff’s relocation.
The Brutalist-style building, inaugurated on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington, D.C., in 1975, already had its detractors due to its age and because it was considered unsuitable for the FBI’s activities. However, Bloomberg reports that disagreements over where to locate the new headquarters delayed this closure.
With the move to the Reagan Building, also in the nation’s capital, FBI employees will be closer to the Department of Justice, the White House, and other federal institutions; however, it abandons plans to move to Maryland—on the outskirts of Washington—one of the options considered and preferred by state authorities.
