GSA Adds Distinctive HUD HQ to ‘Accelerated Disposal’ List
HUD Secretary Scott Turner has called the property the ‘ugliest building in D.C.’
By Nick Trombola April 17, 2025 7:20 pm
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The Washington, D.C., headquarters for the Department of Housing and Urban Development is the next real estate item on the Trump administration’s chopping block.
The General Services Administration on Thursday added the distinctive Brutalist office building, formally known as the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, to its ongoing list of properties identified for “accelerated disposition.” The GSA is actively exploring relocation options for HUD, which has occupied the Weaver Building since 1968. Bloomberg first reported the news.
Maintaining the building at 451 Seventh Street SW is an expensive endeavor, according to the GSA. The property is facing $500 million in deferred maintenance, and $56 million per year in rent and “operational expenditures.” Even with President Donald Trump’s return-to-office mandate for federal workers in effect, half of the building is vacant, per GSA.
“HUD’s focus is on creating a workplace that reflects the values of efficiency, accountability and purpose,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement. “We’re committed to rightsizing government operations and ensuring our facilities support a culture of optimal performance and exceptional service as we collaborate with our partners at GSA to deliver results for the American people.”
Turner hasn’t been shy about his dislike for the property. Turner told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in March that the Weaver Building was “known as the ugliest building in D.C.” Michael Peters, Public Buildings Service commissioner, also endorsed HUD’s move from the Weaver Building to a “more appropriately sized, better equipped and maintained space,” he added in a statement.
Despite a Tuesday executive order from Trump revoking previous guidance that federal agencies should prioritize central business districts for their facilities, as well as the fact that department heads had until earlier this week to submit relocation proposals outside of the DMV, it doesn’t appear that HUD will leave the region just yet. Although an exact timeline and location for a new headquarters are still being determined, the GSA said that the Washington metropolitan area remained a “top priority.”
The building’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places could pose problems for the GSA as it attempts to shed the building, however. Because the Weaver Building has landmark status, the GSA cannot legally sell the property without a preservation covenant, meaning that a potential buyer cannot redevelop the property, nor can it change it to the point of affecting its landmark status.
The Weaver Building joins 30 other properties that the GSA has added to its dispositions list since late March, including another nearly 1 million-square-foot D.C. building known as the Regional Office Building. Yet the list itself has caused some confusion, due to its original posting in early March with 443 properties slated for disposal, only to disappear from the GSA’s website the following day.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
