FCC HQ Move Gets More Complicated
Complications for an FCC headquarters move are mounting. A lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the owner of its current building, and the General Services Administration ruled that its current location is considered to be on a floodplain. The commission has been seeking extra money from Congress for the move, which in part is needed because agency staff has shrunk (see 1602100058).
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FCC HQ landlord Republic Properties filed a complaint in U.S. Federal Claims Court over GSA's handling of the FCC search for new or renovated headquarters. The commission's lease at the Portals will expire in October 2017. The GSA told us last year the current landlord would be able to bid to keep the commission in its current HQ. But filings with the court and GSA indicate that bid wasn't up to the FCC's standards. The complaint filed Wednesday has been ordered sealed by the court.
The landlord has complained before about the process. Republic's associated company Parcel 49C, which filed the case, lodged several protests with the GSA about some FCC requirements it said are too restrictive, and against a GSA decision that the Portals isn't an acceptable home for the FCC because it lies within a 500-year floodplain according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. GAO rejected those protests, in an opinion last week. “All of the other offerors appear to be able to meet the RLP’s [request for lease proposal's] minimum technical requirements,” GAO said. The FCC, GSA, Parcel 39C and Republic Properties didn't comment Thursday.
The March 31 GAO opinion said no bid had been awarded. It said the award process was stayed due to Parcel 49C's protests, some of which were filed so late in the process the GSA declared them “untimely." FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in February that a decision would be made in the spring.
The FCC specifications for its new building that drew its landlord's objections are a requirement for an 11-1/2-foot ceiling on the first floor, and a dual-power source for emergencies, said the GSA opinion. Those requests exceed “the agency’s actual needs” and “unduly” restrict competition among bidders, Parcel 49C said. The commission wants the high ceilings primarily for its open meeting room, as conducive to media coverage, according to the opinion. The high ceilings will permit “press cameras on podiums to provide viewing angles of a speaker’s face over the heads of other participants during live coverage” and “high acoustics for the usage of the dynamic environment; a removable stage and podium with a ramp and steps up to the stage level which requires increased headroom,” said the FCC's initial request, according to the GSA opinion.
The FCC wants the dual-power source to "maintain signal security" and to ensure “that the FCC’s public safety and homeland security mission requirements are met,” the GSA said. “Since the agency has been able to operate in the protester’s building without this requirement for the past 20 years, it should be able to do so for the next 15 years,” Parcel 49C argued. “Many things have changed since the inception of FCC’s current lease,” GSA said, rejecting the argument.
Parcel 49C “would be ineligible for award based on part of its site being located in a 500-year floodplain,” said the GSA. The landlord submitted a letter from a private engineering firm “advising that the protester’s site will be successfully removed from the 500-year floodplain before the lease commencement date.” But GSA said Parcel 49C must submit a letter of map revision (LOMR) showing it's no longer considered to be in the floodplain. A line in the order to seal the federal claims case indicated this matter is part of Parcel 49C's case there. The judge ordered Parcel 49C to file a status report indicating it filed a Federal Emergency Management Agency LOMR with the GSA by April 16. Final briefs in the case are due in June.
Attorneys say as long as the FCC relocates within Washington, as the GSA indicated it would, a move isn't likely to greatly inconvenience companies and law firms doing business with the commission. Since the FCC moved to the Portals, many law firms and associations have focused on acquiring offices convenient to the Hill, since Congress is unlikely to move, said Davis Wright cable lawyer Paul Glist. NAB cited convenient access to the Hill as an important characteristic of its planned new HQ near baseball's Nationals Park in Southeast Washington. Though some firms did rent space closer to the Portals after the FCC moved there, most have since let it lapse, communications-industry lawyers told us.