ST. LOUIS—Employees will start moving into the $1.7 billion National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s new West headquarters in the fall of 2025, officials confirmed Wednesday.

The complex, under construction in the St. Louis Place neighborhood in North St. Louis at the corner of Jefferson and Cass, will replace the existing facility on 2nd street downtown.

A full move-in of 3,150 employees is expected to be complete by the spring of 2026.

U.S. Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. and Roger Wicker, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, toured the downtown location Wednesday and got a briefing on the status of construction at the future site.

Wicker would be in line to chair the committee in the event Republicans win control of the Senate in November.

The agency played a key role in the planning of the operation that located and killed Osama Bin Laden, but has otherwise kept a low profile in downtown for decades.

“The mapping that’s done at NGA St. Louis, not only for our own national security but what happens worldwide, is really important and those needs are going to only increase,” Schmitt said, while noting the symbolic role the campus will play in the revitalization of a large portion of North St. Louis, bringing thousands of jobs and attracting an entire economic ecosystem as St. Louis tries to capitalize on being a geospatial hub in both the public and private sectors.

Unlike its predecessor, it will have a component open to the public, with a focus of incorporating educational opportunities that will give students a chance to see a career path that leads to jobs at NGA and elsewhere in the geospatial space industry.

“It’s an exciting time, it’s an important time in our country’s history and St. Louis is going to play a critical role in that,” Schmitt said.

“Clearly, St. Louis and Missouri as a whole are an integral part of our national security,” Wicker added.

What happens next at the current NGA facility is still unclear. Once the move-out is complete, the site will need to be decommissioned, a process that will likely take months.

A spokesperson for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said language added into a defense appropriations bill by former Sen. Roy Blunt calls for the St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, or LCRA, to have the first crack at acquiring the site at "fair market value." Purchase talks would start in mid to late 2026, with any acquisition not finalized until sometime in 2027.