Its ships might have set sail a long time ago, perhaps many of them gone to Davy Jones’ locker, but the port that once gave them berth is far from sunk. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) National Capitol Region has been busy converting a 55-acre portion of the former Washington Navy Yard (WNY) from a contaminated industrial site to a vibrant new residential, retail, office, and open space complex. The GSA Navy Yard Annex is now known as the Southeast Federal Center (SEFC) and redevelopment is underway.  

Constructed in 1799, the Washington Navy Yard  was designed for shipbuilding and refitting. It transitioned to weapons manufacturing in the mid-1800s, and later was recommissioned to serve office and administrative functions. In 1963, the WNY transferred 55 “excess” acres of its property to GSA, the federal agency tasked with custody and control of federal properties, among other services.    

Congress passed the SEFC Public/Private Development Act of 2000, to allow GSA to form public/private partnerships to develop the property for lease or sale. This allowed greater flexibility to tap the innovation and creativity of the private sector for SEFC development.

GSA’s master plan includes a mixture of office, residential, retail, and cultural uses, which will accommodate 6,000 residents and over 6,000 workers. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) headquarters became the first new SEFC office tenant, and currently has the largest green roof on the East Coast.

The SEFC project is described as “…the most unique real estate project ever undertaken in the history of GSA,” by GSA’s regional administrator for the National Capital Region.

With a total project value estimated to exceed $800 million, the SEFC site will add 7.4 million square feet of new space to the Anacostia waterfront.    

A major obstacle to development was the federal restriction on selling federal land that does not meet federal standards for protection of human health and the environment. In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and GSA entered into a RCRA Corrective Action Order for GSA to conduct a more comprehensive and detailed assessment of the nature and extent of contamination at the property. While the GSA had already completed its own environmental studies and a substantial amount of remediation, some data gaps remained.

The two agencies are now working to expedite the necessary delineation and remedies. To help GSA get ‘ready for reuse’ status on individual parcels as they are prepared for development, they agreed that GSA would conduct a RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) for the entire site, but the RFI would address human exposure risk on a parcel-by-parcel basis as they are developed. This approach requires Final Remedies on a parcel-by-parcel basis.

The human health risk is calculated on current and actual future use, and creates a more thorough remedy in the end. Focusing on a parcel-by-parcel assessment/remedy as the parcel is developed means that the remedy is tailored to the specific use. The benefit to GSA for this approach is that it can get ‘ready for reuse’ clearance on a particular parcel so that lending institutions will lend to the enterprise without having to wait for the entire 55-acre parcel to be remedied.

EPA and GSA have been good environmental partners in ensuring that cleanup of soil and groundwater meets residential or industrial cleanup levels (depending on the parcel’s future use). The projected development completion date is 2017.

Barbara Smith is RCRA project manager with the U.S. EPA, Region 3, in Philadelphia, Pa. Pat Daniels is senior project manager with U.S. GSA, National Capital Region, in Washington, D.C.