DRUG AGENCY UNDER FIRE FOR TENANCY

Tysons Corner Landlord Turns To Congress To Evict DEA

The terms of the lease on the McLean office building were clear, in black
and white: The tenant had to vacate the premises by Oct. 31, 1999. And
that's what the landlord, the West Group, expected to happen.

But three months later the tenant is still there, occupying space promised
to someone else after ignoring notices to vacate.

Instead of calling the sheriff, the West Group called on Congress to help
kick out the squatter. Because this squatter is the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, which operates a drug-testing lab on the property.

"This is a situation that is untenable," said Rep. James P. Moran Jr.
(D-Va.). "The federal government can't be disregarding notices to vacate
the premises. They are illegally there."

Moran and Republican Reps. Thomas M. Davis III and Frank R. Wolf, who also
represent portions of Northern Virginia, intervened last week to try to
resolve the dispute, which is technically between the West Group, the
largest landlord in Tysons Corner, and the General Services Administration,
the government's real estate agency. DEA does not have the authority to
negotiate its own leases.

GSA officials now promise that the drug lab will be gone by fall and then
will move to a temporary location as yet unidentified. Moran said the move
will take place, "period."

"We have to insist the federal government act responsibly here," Moran said.

A spokesman for the West Group declined to comment. Company President
Gerald T. Halpin has contributed to the political campaigns of all three
congressmen. Halpin's wife, Helen, also is a contributor.

Anthony E. Costa, GSA assistant regional administrator for public buildings
in the Washington area, acknowledged that the agency made a mistake. The
blunder will cost taxpayers about $6 million, the price of relocating the
lab to a temporary space for two years until a new, permanent home is ready.

"This is not a normal action," Costa said. "We should have been out. ... We
didn't get our stuff together."

DEA has leased the West Group building, off Route 123, since 1972. A DEA
spokeswoman said the 30,000-square-foot facility is used for drug analysis,
research and training.

The lease expired in December 1997 and was extended through Oct. 31, 1999,
to give the government two more years to find a place for a new, much
larger lab.

Sources said the West Group plans to redevelop the property for an
investment firm, which is likely to pay significantly more than GSA has for
new office space.

The drug agency was paying about $16 per square foot for the 30-year-old
structure in the Westgate office complex, a cluster of mostly two-story
brick buildings built in the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

The average rent for such existing Class C office space in the area is $20
per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc., a commercial real estate
research and information company. Rents for new office space under
construction in the Tysons Corner area range from $31 to $35 per square foot.

Moran said that West Group officials are concerned that the deal with their
new tenant is in jeopardy as long as the DEA remains.

"We can't allow the federal government to subvert a substantial opportunity
for the landowner," he said. "Nor do we want this to go to the court."

In the meantime, the GSA's Costa said the agency is close to finding a
temporary space for the laboratory. Sources said the West Group has offered
other space on one of its properties. GSA also will need to find a
permanent location for a new lab in Northern Virginia that will be nearly
twice as large as the current facility.

The agency also will have to ask Congress for the $6 million to put DEA
into temporary quarters.