Social Security Admin Takes 145,800 SF Sam's Club

WOODLANW, MD-The US Social Security Administration has found a temporary home in the former Sam’s Club while it awaits the $97 million renovation to its aging, 1 million-sf Woodlawn operations center. The 145,800-sf industrial space will be remodeled to accommodate most of the government entity’s Woodlawn employees for as long as the next four years. The monetary terms of the lease have not been disclosed but KLNB Inc., which had the listing, has been marketing the space at $8 per-sf triple net.

Located at 1718 Woodlawn Drive, the former retail outlet sits on 14.5 acres and was originally built back in 1967. The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation lists the property owner as Balogh Family Partnership c/o Wal Mart Stores. The General Services Administration, the government’s real estate arm, has not disclosed the financial details of the work necessary to redevelop the warehouse property into office space, but the building’s current assessed value is $9.1 million.

Some of the workers from the operations center are scheduled to move into their temporary digs in November. The remaining temporarily displaced Social Security workers will move into a 45,000-sf leased space on Rolling Road, and a 70,000-sf space at 1508 Woodlawn, not far from the Sam’s Club building.

Designed by renowned architect George W. Qualls, the Woodlawn operations center is a 42-year-old property. Its gross state of disrepair has forced the Social Security office’s workers to disperse until the major renovation is completed. The renovation is also part of the organization’s Key Initiative, defined as a plan to “provide all SSA employees with user-friendly, modern office facilities that will meet their needs well into the 21st century.