LEXINGTON, S.C. — The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Columbia will be building a new field office in the Town of Lexington.
The new building will be located behind the Lowe's, off Sunset Blvd.
"The FBI's building a new field office in Lexington, South Carolina. We anticipate being out there, taking occupancy around the latter part of 2021," said Don Wood, with FBI's Public Affairs Office in Columbia. "It's a brand new office. It will give us the opportunity to have all our people together under one roof."
The biggest addition with the new building will be space. They think they may have enough space to do mechanical work on their vehicles and additional space for special agents focusing on specialized activities such as bomb techs and evidence response.
Wood says having the new facility in Lexington will also allow them to expand as the FBI continues to grow in South Carolina.
"Usually we keep our field office in a central location. The field office has been in Columbia for decades," Wood explained. "We've had the need to look for property or another building that already exists that we could take over and GSA, General Services Administration for the U.S. Government, they look for the property, an already existing building or some land we could build on and this was found to be the most advantageous location for the FBI to come up there and build a new facility on."
Wood says they believe it will be a big deal for all of their agents and employees to be in the same place.
"We think that will help our efficiencies and allow us to have all our task force members under one roof, too," Wood said. "We have a better working environment and a better communication environment."
Wood went onto say, "We're looking forward to Lexington. It's a beautiful place, nice town and we're looking forward to being out there one day."
The FBI hopes to be able to open the facility by late 2021.