The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is entering the fray to persuade the FBI to leave its headquarters in the District and find a new home in the suburbs.

Supervisors endorsed a site adjacent to the Franconia/Springfield Metro station as a potential new location for the FBI, a site they also had pitched for the Army’s relocation under the Base Realignment and Closure program.

The competition for the FBI is heating up, as officials in Prince George’s and Loudoun counties have already begun campaigns to attract the federal agency and its 12,000 jobs.

The General Services Administration, the government’s leasing arm, already owns the Springfield property, where a large, mostly vacant warehouse now sits.

“The former GSA site not only meets the needs of the FBI, but gives Fairfax County a valuable new employer and new jobs,” Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said. “The area is located near Metro and the VRE, and prime for redevelopment, and this kind of project could spur that.”

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Fairfax officials preferred the site to the Mark Center for the Army’s relocation under the Base Realignment and Closure program.

Reports show the FBI no longer fits inside its 40-year-old offices at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in the District. The building must be demolished or renovated, or new office space must be found.

Supervisor Jeff McKay, who represents the Lee District that includes Springfield, said a location in Fairfax County would offer significant savings to the FBI, which may also choose to stay in the District or move elsewhere.

“After the BRAC Mark Center debacle that saw thousands of jobs moved to a location with no transit and a traffic-choked highway system, moving the FBI headquarters to the GSA site would be a chance for the federal government to make a smart decision,” McKay wrote.