The Department of General Services (DGS) joined Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last month in celebrating breaking ground on the new DMV Benning Ridge Service Center at 4525 Benning Road, SE.

Along with Mayor Bowser, DGS Interim Director Jonathan Kayne, Councilmember Yvette Alexander (Ward 7), DMV Director Lucinda Babers, agency staff, and the project’s developer celebrated the first step in bringing a new service center to Southeast DC, as the agency will be closing the existing Penn Branch Service Center in Southeast that is also located in Ward 7.

Director Kayne thanked members of the DGS team – Sheryl Ponds, and Robert Coopers – for bringing the project to the first step of the construction phase – the groundbreaking. He also acknowledged that the team will continue its work with DMV and the developer for this project, DBT-Data Holdings, until the new facility opens in 2016.

The new service center will be accessible to drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and Metrorail/Metrobus riders. The new center will be convenient for residents in the community, and will attract people from neighboring wards and neighborhoods to visit the nearby small businesses that are such an important part of this community.

The new state-of-the art Benning Ridge Service Center will be the third new location that DC DMV has opened with the support of DGS: in 2013, Rhode Island Service Center; and in 2014, Georgetown Service Center. The new facility is in response to the needs of resident of the Ward 7 community for a service center that can accommodate more people in a new building.

With the opening of the new Benning Ridge Service Center, DC DMV will continue one full service location in every quadrant of the District.