diff --git a/federation/cluster/common.sh b/federation/cluster/common.sh
index c11453bacd9..20153734d24 100644
--- a/federation/cluster/common.sh
+++ b/federation/cluster/common.sh
@@ -27,16 +27,20 @@
 # Provides the $KUBERNETES_PROVIDER variable and detect-project function
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/kube-util.sh"
 
-# Populates $PROJECT
-detect-project
-if [[ ${PROJECT} == *':'* ]]
-then
-	echo "${PROJECT} contains ':' and can not be used as FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE. Please set FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE explicitly."
-	exit 1
+# If $FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE isn't set set the GCR registry name based on the
+# detected project name.
+if [[ -z "${FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE}" ]]; then
+    # Populates $PROJECT
+    detect-project
+    if [[ ${PROJECT} == *':'* ]]
+    then
+	    echo "${PROJECT} contains ':' and can not be used as FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE. Please set FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE explicitly."
+	    exit 1
+    fi
+    FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE=gcr.io/${PROJECT}
 fi
 
 FEDERATION_IMAGE_REPO_BASE=${FEDERATION_IMAGE_REPO_BASE:-'gcr.io/google_containers'}
-FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE=${FEDERATION_PUSH_REPO_BASE:-gcr.io/${PROJECT}}
 FEDERATION_NAMESPACE=${FEDERATION_NAMESPACE:-federation-e2e}
 
 KUBE_PLATFORM=${KUBE_PLATFORM:-linux}