D.C. Office of Planning Shrinks Footprint by Over 4,000 SF
By Nick Trombola September 6, 2024 1:29 pm
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Turns out the feds aren’t the only side of government that can downsize its office footprint.
The D.C. Office of Planning has moved into a new 19,920-square-foot home at 899 North Capitol Street NE, trimming more than 4,000 square feet from its previous 24,272-square-foot office at 1100 Fourth Street SW.
The move is in step with the D.C. Department of General Services, which oversees the District’s real estate portfolio and mandates “the efficient and effective management of the District’s real estate investments and interests through strategic portfolio management,” according to the agency’s mission statement.
Both buildings are owned by affiliates of Affinius Capital, the 1-year-old investment management platform of USAA Real Estate and Square Mile Capital, according to the Business Journals, which first reported the news.
Representatives for Affinius and the Department of General Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
D.C. Health previously occupied the space at 899 North Capitol, though it also moved earlier this year to a more modern, seven-story space at 2201 Shannon Place SE in Anacostia. That move is part of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s effort to tackle health inequities in Southeast D.C., which is predominantly Black.
As for 1100 Fourth Street, D.C.’s Department of Buildings and the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection will move into the Office of Planning’s old digs. The two departments were previously under the same entity, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, though were split in 2022 as part of a reform effort at the time.
The D.C. Office of Planning’s downsize comes amid the federal government’s effort to shrink its own real estate footprint, which has been a major blow to the local real estate market. As part of its 2025 budget proposal in March, the Biden Administration set aside $425 million for the federal General Services Administration to transform its portfolio into one less cumbersome and costly.
The latest targets of that effort are the U.S. Departments of State and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — the former of which will shrink its office by a planned 771,566 square feet once three of its leases expire. HUD meanwhile, which had already reduced its footprint by nearly 700,000 square feet between 2012 and 2023, plans to shrink by another 60 percent by 2038.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
