CIA “Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny” Whether Secret Virginia Site Is Theirs
A low-profile government complex in northern Virginia – long rumored to be a CIA spook site – briefly appeared on a federal real estate for-sale list last month, only to disappear from the market within hours, in a mysterious vanishing act worthy of a spy novel.
The nondescript Parr-Franconia warehouse complex, tucked just off I-95 a few miles from the Pentagon, popped up on a Trump administration list of βnon-coreβ federal properties slated for potential sale, Bloomberg reports, noting that the list was yanked down less than 24 hours later – including more than 400 other buildings and offices, some housing cabinet-level agencies.
But it was the Springfield cluster that raised eyebrows β 14 buildings, some going by names like βFranconia Building Bβ and βButler Building 12,β which donβt appear on any other public database of government real estate.
The CIA’s official response? A non-denial denial.
βThe CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistenceβ of records related to the proposed sale, the agency said Monday in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Bloomberg News – deploying its classic “Glomar” language, coined during a Cold War submarine recovery op in 1974.
Thatβs spy-speak for: Donβt ask us – weβre not telling.
The site, which dates to 1952, has been the subject of decades of local speculation. Foreign Policy once identified it as a heavily guarded compound used to store βclassified files, equipment, and supplies.β Marc Ambinder of The Week called it βperhaps the worst-kept secret in Springfield,β where neighbors talk openly about the strange security measures and rotating surveillance.
“Itβs been identified in numerous public forums. The bad guys know it exists; the CIA and the Air Force often assign counter-surveillance teams to the area,” wrote Armbinder.
Even Fairfax County assigns a hefty valuation: the 1.2 million-square-foot property is tax-exempt but carries an appraisal of over $115 million.
The Trump administration has made waves with its effort to trim the governmentβs bloated real estate portfolio, but this listing β along with the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which Secretary Scott Turner famously slammed as βthe ugliest building in DCβ β may have gone a step too far.
In the end, the administration backtracked on all 443 proposed sales, citing a need for further review. But the sudden appearance of a shadowy Springfield site, potentially connected to U.S. intelligence, suggests someone in the bureaucracy mightβve hit “publish” without reading the fine print β or the classification stamps.
Neither the CIA nor the General Services Administration will say more β not even to confirm the property exists. Which, in the world of cloak-and-dagger real estate, probably says everything.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 04/29/2025 – 18:50