Plan Nixed for $1.4B Money-Printing Facility

The process to relocate the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing from its longtime home in Washington, D.C., began in 2019

reprints


A years-long plan to build a $1.4 billion replacement facility in Beltsville, Md., for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has been shelved, at least for now. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited “budgetary constraints and a reduction in the project’s required scope” earlier this month and canceled a solicitation for bids to build a new 1 million-square-foot money-printing plant for the U.S. Treasury Department. The bureau would’ve relocated from its current production facility at 301 14th Street SW in Washington, D.C., which it has occupied since 1914. The Business Journals first reported the news.

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The cancellation’s Jan. 13 date means that it was not the direct result of the Trump administration’s new goal of aggressively downsizing the government’s real estate portfolio. 

The Corps of Engineers “will continue to work in partnership with BEP on a path forward as reevaluations for this project are underway,” the cancellation notice said. 

The project received only one bid since the solicitation began, with a Biden-era policy potentially to blame for the lack of competition, per the Business Journals. In a memo issued to members this week, Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) said that requirements for a project labor agreement from the Biden administration dissuaded four out of five contractors pre-qualified for the project from bidding.

Representatives for the Corps of Engineers, the Treasury Department and ABC did not immediately respond to requests for further comment. 

The process to replace the Bureau of Engraving’s production facility began in 2019, with the agency that year eyeing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center as a potential site. A 104-acre parcel there was transferred to the Treasury Department in early 2022, with reports at the time indicating that design development would finish by 2023 and that construction on the entire facility would end by 2027. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.