The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed the Innovation Center & Central Utility Plant 2 as the educational and technological heart of its growing Redstone Arsenal campus. Designed as a “graduate school” for cybercrime specialists, the three-story facility supports advanced training through digital laboratories, classrooms and the Kinetic Cyber Range while providing a modern workplace to attract technical talent.
The procurement gave qualified teams a fixed price and invited them to propose the greatest value they could deliver within it. Rather than prescribing a single solution, the FBI conducted confidential one-on-one meetings with the three shortlisted teams, allowing proposers to test ideas directly with the Owner without exposing proprietary concepts to competitors. The FBI provided stipends to the two unsuccessful finalists.
Creating Room for Innovation
That structure gave teams a meaningful incentive to innovate. The selected team proposed three stories instead of the four envisioned in the procurement documents. The more efficient configuration met program requirements while freeing funds for improvements to architectural quality and the user experience. Early constructability discussions also produced a project-specific foundation system rather than relying on prescribed parameters.
The FBI prepared its own organization for design-build through third-party training for contracting, legal and project management personnel. After award, facilitated partnering established clear decision-making pathways and proved especially valuable when the FBI introduced more stringent security requirements during design. The team revised details without disrupting the design schedule and limited the resulting budget impact.
Virtual collaboration sustained progress during the pandemic, while national trade contractors supplemented a limited local labor pool during construction.
The final cost increased from $198 million to $229 million, primarily because of Owner-directed security enhancements and approved pandemic-related supply-chain costs. The completed LEED Gold facility exceeds applicable energy-performance standards by 30%.
The project demonstrates how a best-value, fixed-price procurement can preserve cost discipline while giving design-build teams meaningful room to compete through creativity.
Design-Build Team
| Client/Owner: | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| Design-Builder: | Clark Construction Group |
| General Contractor: | Clark Construction Group |
| Architect: | HKS, Inc. |
| Engineers: | Cagley & Associates, Inc.; Bernhard MCC; Wiley Wilson |
| Specialty Contractors: | RELM Studio |
| Project Cost: | $229,000,000 |
| Construction Duration: | 51 months |
Photos
Photo Credits: Corey Gaffer