Eight Leases in L.A. Among Hundreds Allegedly Cut by DOGE So Far
The non-governmental agency’s exact role in the terminations was not immediately clear
By Nick Trombola March 5, 2025 6:00 pm
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With nearly 750 federal leases, representing over 9.5 million square feet, allegedly terminated just over one month into the new Trump administration, no region is safe from the Department of Government Efficiency‘s cost-cutting wrath.
That includes Los Angeles, where eight government leases have so far received the ax, according to DOGE’s website as of Wednesday afternoon. Almost all of the offices are in Downtown L.A.
The largest terminated lease by far is the Security and Exchange Commission’s 57,903-square-foot office at 444 South Flower Street, a 48-story tower owned by Oaktree Capital Management, which is majority-owned by Brookfield (BN). A spokesperson for Oaktree declined to comment.
Three others include a 13,541-square-foot Environmental Protection Agency office at 600 Wilshire Boulevard, which is owned by Onni Group; 16,439 square feet leased by the General Services Administration at Jamison’s World Trade Center LA at 350 South Figueroa Street; and 20,885-square-foot digs for the National Labor Relations Board at 11500 West Olympic Boulevard in L.A.’s Sawtelle neighborhood, which ownership records trace back to an individual named Philip Ho.
The remaining four leases are relatively small: a 1,200-square-foot Secret Service office at 725 South Figueroa Street; a 1,527-square-foot office lease for the Agricultural Marketing Service, a sub-agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at 1320 East Olympic Boulevard; a 6,610-square-foot office for Washington Headquarters Services, which provides administrative and human resources services for the Department of Defense, at 12267 San Vicente Boulevard in L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood; and a 7,100-square-foot Federal Highway Administration office at 201 North Figueroa Street.
“Acting Administrator [Stephen] Ehikian’s vision for the GSA includes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future,” a GSA spokesperson told Commercial Observer in an email.
DOGE has taken credit for the lease cuts, which according to the non-governmental agency have saved about $12 million in annual rent costs. But DOGE’s specific role in each termination is still murky.
Three of the eight L.A. leases were “true terminations,” according to DOGE, with the agencies having closed their offices. The remaining leases were terminated via “mass modification,” which occurs when the government initiates a change to a group of contracts that affects all of the contractors simultaneously, meaning that DOGE could have hastened their termination timelines.
Yet canceling leases isn’t the Trump administration’s only tool for shaving the federal government’s real estate portfolio. The GSA on Tuesday posted a list of 443 “non-core” assets across the U.S. that it said it was considering selling or otherwise disposing of, only to scrub the list from its website Wednesday morning. The agency said it would republish the list “in the near future” following “initial input.”
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
