The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is expanding its presence in the DMV, even as fellow quasi-government agencies cut federal leases or are considered by President Donald Trump for privatization. 

FINRA sublet 77,916 square feet from media giant Gannett at Tamares Group’s Valo Park in Tysons, Va., about 12 miles west of Washington, D.C. The agency, which regulates broker-dealers on behalf of Congress, is taking over about 40 percent of the space vacated by Gannett last year.

“We constantly evaluate our real estate footprint and adjust as needed. We choose Tysons as we have many staff based in Northern Virginia,” a spokesperson for FINRA told Commercial Observer. Representatives for Tamares and Gannett did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Business Journals first reported the news. 

Gannett developed the two office towers that make up Valo Park at 7950 Jones Branch Drive in the mid-2000s to use as its headquarters, yet the USA Today owner decided to sell the property to a Tamares-led JV for $270 million in 2015. 

As Gannett’s financial troubles mounted, the media conglomerate ultimately opted to leave Northern Virginia in early 2024, dropping its 176,000-square-foot headquarters at Valo Park for a 24,000-square-foot office in New York City. Gannett’s lease at Valo Park is slated to expire in October 2030, and Chief Financial Officer Doug Horne called the space “underutilized since the pandemic” during the company’s February 2024 earnings call.

FINRA, which is not subject to the current government shutdown, utilizes offices nationwide, including its 67,000-square-foot Washington, D.C., headquarters at 1700 K Street NW, and an office at 9509 Key West Avenue in Rockville, Md. 

At least one other office tenant also absorbed DMV office space vacated by a major company recently. Though it’s not a sublease, human resources and financial management platform Workday inked a 51,204-square-foot lease at BXP’s Reston Town Center earlier this month, taking over about two-thirds of the offices previously occupied by Facebook parent Meta. The tech giant opted to shed most of that space last year as it shrunk its office portfolio across the country in the aftermath of the pandemic. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.