| A New Headquarters
Building for the Navy League
NLUS National President Timothy O. Fanning has announced
that the Arlington County Board has unanimously approved the rezoning
and general land use plan amendment request submitted by the Navy League
of the United States. "This
means," Fanning said, "that we can now move forward with our plans to
consolidate the entire block on which the current headquarters building
is located and build a modern and much more efficient headquarters building
on the block." Fanning said the new building, a seven-story high-rise
with 220,000 square feet of usable office space, is planned to be a "green" building
as designated by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The new NLUS headquarters building,
he said, "will be the first LEED-designated building in Arlington County
and, as such, a major and extremely attractive asset for the entire community."
The NLUS Board of Directors formally approved the recommendation--during
the Navy League's 2000 Winter Meeting in Hilton Head, S.C.--to go forward
with construction of the new NLUS headquarters building and to finance
it in part through reinvestment of the Navy League's endowment funds.
The building will be owned and operated by the Navy League LLC and, Fanning
pointed out, "will not only provide rent-free space for the national headquarters
staff but also ensure a steady source of considerable income that will help
our organization continue and expand its current and future programs on behalf
of the nation's sea services for perhaps another century to come.
"It is both fortunate and fortuitous," Fanning said, "that the groundbreaking
for our new headquarters building will take place in the last year of
our first century of service, and that the building will be ready for
occupancy in the first year of our second century."
The first floor of the new building will be leased primarily as "first-class
retail space," said National Executive Director Charles L. Robinson, "with
a 'white tablecloth' restaurant and other retail facilities needed by
the community." He said the first floor "also will include a 3,000-square-foot
conference room that will be available for use not only by the Navy League
itself but also by building tenants and community organizations."
The new building will be very "visitor-friendly," Robinson said, "with
four floors of underground parking available and the Court House Metro
stop only one block away." He said that the headquarters staffs of the
Navy League, the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and the Navy League Foundation
will occupy "about two-thirds" of the second floor of the building, and
that the remainder of the second floor and the five upper floors "will
be leased out as class-A office space."
Fanning pointed out that the Navy League's building plans have been
endorsed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation--which has published an article
about the environmental benefits and overall attractiveness of the building.
(The article can be viewed on the foundation's web site, www.cbf.com.)
Robinson said that the NLUS headquarters staff will occupy temporary
office spaces "just across the street from the current headquarters building,
in seventh-floor spaces directly overlooking the construction site. NLUS
headquarters will retain its current mailing address [2300 Wilson Boulevard,
Arlington, Va. 22201-3308] and our same phone numbers," Robinson said. "Navy
Leaguers visiting headquarters during the construction period," he said, "will
find us less than one block away, at Suite 705, 2300 Clarendon Boulevard."
Demolition of the present headquarters building and excavation work
on the new building will start later this year, Fanning said, "depending
on completion of the remodeling schedule." He said the NLUS headquarters
staff plans to move into its temporary spaces in late October or early
November 2001, and that the new building "is expected to be completed
in the late summer of 2003. ...
"As we get into the construction phase of the building," Fanning said, "Navy
Leaguers will be able to follow the project on our web site ... [where]
we will have a web camera showing actual views of the construction site."
Additional reports on the new Navy League Headquarters Building and "situation
reports" on the progress of construction will be included in future issues
of Sea Power and The Navy Leaguer. JDH |
