The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $697.8-million design-build contract to Balfour Beatty Construction LLC for a building at Fort Meade in Maryland, the Dept. of Defense announced April 13.

The project will include construction of a multi-story 858,000-sq-ft facility plus a 1.2-million-sq-ft parking garage, according to the bid solicitation. The facility “is not a standard design,” the documents state, adding that it must be built to Director of National Intelligence standards for protecting sensitive information. The building will also feature open office areas with large, flexible floor plates, a Corps fact sheet about the project states.

Fort Meade’s 242-acre East Campus, where the building will be located, will serve both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, but the purpose of this particular building was not disclosed in the fact sheet. Several other projects on the campus have already been completed.

Rendering courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Defense Dept. officials say they received three bids for the project. Mike Phillips, Balfour Beatty's Mid-Atlantic president, says design will begin immediately, and construction is slated for 2023. Officials say they expect work to complete by April 13, 2026.

Construction of another $775-million building on the campus is expected to complete next year, and there are plans for one additional building also estimated to cost $775 million.

Balfour Beatty Construction is a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty US, which ranks No. 16 on ENR’s 2021 Top 400 Contractors list with more than $5 billion in revenue in 2020.