U.S. Small Business Administration to Relocate Outside of NYC
SBA plans to close its 26 Federal Plaza office because of the city’s status as a ‘sanctuary city’
By Isabelle Durso March 7, 2025 1:05 pm
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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is moving its regional offices out of New York City as new immigrant deportation policies take shape under the Trump administration, according to a Thursday announcement.
The SBA said it will also relocate its offices out of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle in order to “support President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure our borders” and move out of “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that limit or deny cooperation with the federal government to enforce immigration law.
While the SBA’s New York office was not on the General Services Administration’s list this week of 443 federal properties it was looking to sell across the U.S. (a list that was quickly removed), the SBA said it will move out of its current office in the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza, according to the New York Business Journal.
The SBA said it is leaving its regional offices in the listed cities because the cities “do not comply with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” according to the announcement. Instead, the SBA said it will move to “less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”
The SBA also announced Thursday that it would “end taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens” and impose a new policy requiring SBA loan applications to include a citizenship verification provision to “ensure only legal, eligible applicants can access SBA programs.”
“I am pleased to announce that this agency will cut off access to loans for illegal aliens and relocate our regional offices out of sanctuary cities that reward criminal behavior,” Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the SBA, said in a statement. “We will return our focus to empowering legal, eligible business owners across the United States — in partnership with the municipalities who share this administration’s commitment to secure borders and safe communities.”
The timeline for the regional office moves is “forthcoming,” a spokesperson for the SBA told Commercial Observer. It’s unclear how much space it occupies in the New York City building.
Other U.S. federal offices located at the Javits building on the corner of Broadway and Worth Street include the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Court of International Trade.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
