GSA to Jettison Eight More Federally Owned Office Buildings Nationwide
That includes the Regional Office Building in D.C., once intended to be the new home of FEMA
By Nick Trombola December 5, 2024 12:28 pm
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The General Services Administration has targeted eight more federally owned buildings to shed as part of its trend of shrinking the government’s office footprint, claiming to ultimately save U.S. taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars in the process.
The GSA, which manages the federal government’s office portfolio, said that the dispositions amount to 1.5 million square feet and could save more than $475 million over the next 10 years. Though the agency’s exact plan for the buildings wasn’t immediately clear, it could ultimately choose to sell, exchange or transfer the properties.
“Moving underutilized and underperforming assets out of the building portfolio allows us to tailor a smaller federal footprint with modern and optimized buildings, which will lead to better buildings,” Elliot Doomes, the GSA’s public buildings commissioner, said in a statement.
The eight properties are 301 Seventh Street SW, Washington, D.C., known as the Regional Office Building; the Brickell Plaza Building in Miami; the Charles A. Halleck Federal Building in Lafayette, Ind.; the Bismarck Federal Building in Bismarck, N.D.; the James V. Hansen Federal Building in Ogden, Utah; the Gus J. Solomon U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore.; the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building in Port Angeles, Wash.; and the Montpelier Federal Building in Montpelier, Vt.
The roughly 941,000-square-foot Regional Office Building in D.C. was intended to be the new home of Federal Emergency Management Agency, with FEMA expanding from its 465,000-square-foot footprint at the Federal Center Plaza building at the District’s L’Enfant Plaza. Those plans were scrapped earlier this year due to “current market conditions” in D.C., the GSA said at the time.
The GSA said it will work with the agencies to help plan and budget for their relocations. It wasn’t immediately clear when the GSA expects to shed the properties, though it said in an announcement Wednesday that some of the buildings could be converted to residential housing.
“The actions we’re announcing today demonstrate our commitment to accelerating the disposition of federal buildings that don’t use taxpayer dollars effectively,” Robin Carnahan, GSA administrator, said.
The GSA has for years systematically reduced the federal government’s real estate portfolio in order to improve efficiency and save tax dollars, shedding some 11 million square feet of owned space and nearly 18 million square feet of leased space over the past decade, according to the agency, with a heavy focus on D.C.
Recently, that’s included the U.S. Departments of State and Housing and Urban Development, which will consolidate offices, as well as the Treasury Department and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
