Until 2005, the embassy was located in an office building at 4200 Wisconsin Avenue N.W.[3] For many years the embassy consisted of only two diplomats and a small number of staffers. In recent years[when?], Qatar has been working to make itself a banking, business, and tourism centre and this created a need for a larger embassy. So too did the growing strategic partnership between Qatar and the U.S. that has seen large numbers of American forces based in the country.