Special Report: Jim Moran and the Mark Center

You’ve probably heard a lot about the controversy over the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) plan to move 6,400 employees to the Mark Center, located just off Interstate 395. Jim Moran has been very vocal about the situation, and this special report will expose the truth. Our sources are cited with the superscript numbers; they are listed at the bottom of the article with the link to the source.

First, the basics. BRAC is a process carried out by the Defense Department and Congress when consolidation of military bases and resources is needed. The most recent BRAC process began in 2005, with the changes scheduled to be implemented no later than September 15, 2011. It was decided DOD offices in Crystal City would be closed and the 6,400 federal workers who work there would be relocated to one of three sites – the Victory Center at Eisenhower Avenue, the Engineer Proving Ground at Fort Belvoir, the General Services Administration facility in Springfield, or the Mark Center site in Alexandria on Seminary Road. The GSA site is Metro-accessible and was already owned by the federal government. The Mark Center is not Metro accessible, meaning that the thousands of workers who took Metro to the Crystal City offices would be forced to drive, further clogging 395.

In October 2008, the Army announced it had chosen the Mark Center site, saying considerations of “cost, the schedule, security requirements, transportation and other critical factors” led them to choose the Mark Center.

When the decision was announced, Moran issued a statement saying, “Preventing the Washington Headquarters Service [a division of DOD] from moving to the Engineer Proving Ground [at Fort Belvoir] benefits the region’s commuters. Transportation studies showed that locating the headquarters there as dictated in the Army’s original plan would increase commuting times along I-395 and Route 1 by two to three hours per day. In that respect, this decision is a victory for Northern Virginia commuters.”¹ In fairness, Moran did support the GSA site in Springfield, but the point remains that he praised the Mark Center site.

But shortly after the decision was announced, the federal government bought the Mark Center land, totaling 16 acres, for $105 million from Duke Realty. Three weeks after the sale, Dennis Oklak, CEO of Duke Realty, made a maximum $2,300 contribution to Moran’s re-election campaign.² After Clark Construction was contracted to build the Mark Center towers for $695 million, Clark executives contributed $10,900 to Moran’s campaign.³

As the public found out how the Mark Center would create even more massive gridlock on I-395 during rush hour, Moran became very vocal, making a media blitz acting like he had nothing to do with the Mark Center choice and was powerless to stop it, even though 1) he is the senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and thus carries enormous clout over these decisions and 2) nothing of this scale happens in the 8th District without him having a say. He was re-elected in November 2010 after convincing voters of just that. In May of this year, he said, “I just have to say [I am] disgusted with some of the people who, either through indifference or wrongheadedness, have allowed this to happen.”⁴

Moran has begun pushing hard to stop the move. Last year, he inserted language into the 2011 defense authorization bill capping parking spaces at the Mark Center site at 1,000, saying, “They can fill the office building as long as they don’t drive to it.”³ His strategy is to delay the move, thus keeping DOD in their Crystal City offices as long as possible.

But there’s another twist. Vornado Realty owns the building in which the DOD’s Crystal City offices are currently located. If the 6,400 DOD workers in their building were to move, Vornado and the surrounding businesses which serve the workers would take a huge hit. So a month after it was decided in May 2005 that the workers would be relocated, Vornado hired the giant lobbying firm Patton Boggs.⁵ In August 2005, Moran got $500 checks from Vornado CEO Steven Roth⁶, president Michael Fascitelli⁷, CFO Joseph Macnow⁸), and New York division president David Greenbaum⁹. The donations quickly increased. Vornado’s executives and PAC gave Moran $17,000 in the 2008 election cycle. The money has also flowed from Patton Boggs – $9,900 in the 2005-2006 cycle¹⁰ and $9,700 in 2007-2008 ¹¹ from its executives and PAC. After the Pentagon announced in 2009 it would keep its lease with Vornado through 2014 and as Moran began pushing to delay the Mark Center move, the money from Patton Boggs increased to $11,600 in 2009-2010, and Vornado gave him $16,800 in 2009-2010, more than any other company or group in that period.¹²

Let’s summarize – Moran allowed and applauded the choice of the Mark Center, and got campaign cash from the companies who benefited from the choice. Then, after getting campaign cash from the company who would lose big from the choice and realizing he could harness public outrage for his own gain, he started trying to stop DOD from using the Mark Center.

Jim Moran is benefiting from this whole mess. While hundreds of thousands face the prospect of a two or three hour commute to work in the morning, and 6,400 workers face uncertainty about where they will be working, Moran is swimming in campaign cash and winning public sentiment. It’s disgusting.

Sources:
1. Fort Belvoir Eagle, October 2, 2008
2. FEC records
3. Washington Examiner, January 4, 2011
4. Fairfax Station Patch, May 17, 2011
5. Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org)
6. FEC records
7. FEC records
8. FEC records
9. FEC records
10. Center for Responsive Politics
11. Center for Responsive Politics
12. Center for Responsive Politics