Remember those big glassy office blocks planned for the intersection of South Capitol Street and the Anacostia Freeway? Developer Jeff Epperson with Urban-City Ventures was going for the Department of Homeland Security’s request for 1.2 million square feet of consolidated office space. He’ll need to think of something else to put there: Bisnow is reporting that with no funding in the federal budget, the solicitation has been cancelled.

Epperson is philosophical about the lost opportunity.

“The need doesn’t go away,” he jotted in an email. “We believe this is more a reflection that the [solicitation for offer] as originally written and amended was no longer the best approach for the greater consolidation goal and the project’s sheer size made it way too visible. I expect to see these requirements back out (maybe even in the Fall) in separate SFO’s for each tenant.”

Translation: Somebody will still get to build all that DHS office space. Just likely not in one place, and not as soon as originally planned. Meanwhile, it’s back to the drawing board for Poplar Point. That could be good news for people who’d rather see something other than a secure federal complex there. Or it could just mean it sits empty for another decade.