The federal government is looking for a new headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, for the National Science Foundation that would cut the agency’s footprint to less than half its prior size.

The Trump administration announced in June that the NSF’s headquarters at 2451 Eisenhower Ave. would be taken over by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and it would be looking for a new home for the research funding agency.

The government is now looking for that alternative space for the NSF in Alexandria, in the same neighborhood as its current headquarters, according to a presolicitation notice posted Friday to its procurement website.

The General Services Administration is seeking between 240K SF and 280K SF for the agency for a 48-month lease, according to the notice. Its Eisenhower Avenue headquarters, where it has been since 2017, is 661K SF.

The NSF has more than 1,800 employees working at the headquarters.

A spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 1,000 NSF employees, said in a statement to Bisnow that the “NSF is acting in secrecy, apparently rushing to move the agency to another building in November under a short lease of 48 months.”