London (CNSNews.com) - After years of wrangling with its wealthy neighbors, the American Embassy here is considering moving out of its historic address in the heart of the city.

Located in upscale Grosvenor Square, in the center of the West End, the embassy has endured years of controversy over security measures put into place after Sept. 11, 2001.

Though the present embassy has stood in the square since 1960, a modernist concrete and glass construction amidst the genteel Georgian townhouses, recent years have seen the addition of elaborate security barriers and 24-hour police patrols.

But while embassy officials have repeatedly stressed the need to protect the building against terrorist attack, many neighbors have complained bitterly that it's felt like they were living in the middle of an armed camp.

In noisy meetings with the local Westminster Council, and in ads taken out in The Washington Post, they've also charged that living so near the embassy has made them the unwitting targets to any terrorist with a truck bomb.

The embassy has repeatedly said that it wants to stay in Grosvenor Square but on Monday, the press office confirmed that the United States was studying the possibility of moving elsewhere.

Spokeswoman Susan Domowitz said Monday that real estate agents Knight Frank have been hired as advisors to any potential sale of the current building.

Real estate developer Cushman and Wakefield have also been retained as advisors to search out another site for the embassy, preferably in central London.

In addition, Domowitz said that the nearby U.S. Navy Building has already been vacated and that Cushman and Wakefield is handling its sale.

However, she stressed that selling the main chancery building was only one option being looked at and that the process was still in the early stages.

And if the United States does leave the current building, she said that it wouldn't be because of the threat of terrorism or poor relations with the neighbors but because of the fact that the embassy is in notoriously bad shape.

With the building decades old, she said that it needed extensive renovations and that it only made sense to think about moving elsewhere.

Yet while the current embassy has only been in the square for a historically brief time, the American presence in the area dates back to 1785, when future President John Adams opened the first United States mission to Great Britain.

During World War Two, General Dwight D. Eisenhower established his headquarters in the square and with uniformed GIs swarming through the streets night and day, it quickly got the nickname of "Eisenhower Platz".

On Friday, Glenys Roberts, a Westminster City Councilor who has been trying to work with the embassy and local residents, said that American officials had told her last month that they were going ahead with the sale.

However, given the complexity of moving hundreds of personnel into a new location, she said that it would be at least four or five years before this happened.

In addition, she said that the embassy is looking for a site in central London with plenty of open space around it, which only leaves a handful of possible candidates.

She said that a possible site might be the former Chelsea Barracks, a 13-acre site now up for sale by the Ministry of Defense, or somewhere in Regents Park, which is near the official residence of the American Ambassador.

The current embassy does not own the land on which it sits but rather holds it in a 999-year-lease from the Duke of Westminster, who is a major landowner in the West End.

If the lease is sold, Roberts said it was likely the new owners would tear down the embassy and put up a hotel or office complex.

However, she said that she would be sad to see the embassy go, which was designed by famed Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen.

She said that it was one of the top three terrorist targets in London and that made it difficult for both the embassy and nearby residents.

Yet after surviving through the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War, when protestors regularly thronged the square, she that the once-elegant embassy would leave a tremendous void when it left.

"We managed to survive all that and I'm sorry to see them go," she said.