Groundbreaking Date Set for $1.7B St. Louis Campus

The new headquarters for an intelligence agency is the largest federal project in the city's history.

Next NGA West. Rendering courtesy of McCarthy HTT

The development team behind the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus in St. Louis is breaking ground on Next NGA West (N2W) on Nov. 26. The McCarthy HITT joint venture will lead construction on the $1.7 billion venture, which marks the largest federal investment project in the history of the city, slated for opening in 2025.

The mega-project’s budget includes the $711.7 million McCarthy HITT contract, funded through the Pentagon’s military construction resources. The design-build team also includes Black & Veatch, Gensler and Akima. Jointly managed by NGA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Air Force, the development will rise on a 97-acre site in the St. Louis Place Neighborhood. Last December, the city transferred the new site to the U.S. Air Force.

Secure work environment

Located at the intersection of Jefferson and Cass avenues, the facility will encompass a roughly 712,000-square-foot office building, a visitor’s center, a remote inspection facility, parking garages and access control points. Plans call for wireless technologies to ensure a secure and classified work environment. Additionally, the development team is aiming for LEED Silver certification.

Following a series of planning studies, the partners decided that a new facility will prove less disruptive to NGA’s mission, it will be quicker and less costly than upgrading the agency’s current headquarters, which dates back to the 1840s. The U.S. Air Force owns NGA’s current facility as well, situated in south St. Louis. No decision has been made on what will happen to the property once NGA vacates it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee construction and design on behalf of NGA after the groundbreaking. The federal agency estimates that the project will require up to 1,300 workers per day at its peak in 2022. Furthermore, N2W is anticipated to create a total of approximately 5,000 construction jobs.

NGA’s new campus is just one of a series of projects involving military office developments currently underway across the U.S. Last month, Manchester Financial kicked off the $1.5 billion redevelopment of the U.S. Navy’s waterfront property in San Diego.

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