Andrew Heller Named Acting Public Buildings Service Commissioner

The General Service Administration’s Public Buildings Service (PBS) has a new temporary leader, following the departure of its previous head after just six months on the job. 

GSA veteran Andrew Heller has been named acting commissioner of the PBS, according to the Business Journals, replacing former commissioner Michael Peters. The PBS leads the management of the federal government’s real estate portfolio. Peters had helped oversee the Trump administration’s federal real estate downsizing efforts throughout the first half of this year. 

Heller has been with the GSA since 2018, per his LinkedIn, and previously served as the agency’s deputy commissioner under Peters. In late July, Peters vacated the role just six months after his appointment by President Donald Trump, reportedly to return to the private sector. Peters had previously held a career in investment banking, working with firms like Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. 

Peters’ departure also came about a month after co-announcing that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would vacate its vast, if dilapidated, headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a new facility in Northern Virginia. Peters had reportedly told PBS employees before his departure that the agency would reorganize in early August, though it’s unclear if his exit has altered those plans. 

Heller’s digital footprint is relatively scant, though he reportedly sent an email to PBS staff in February detailing a plan to cut nearly 3,560 jobs, or roughly 63 percent of its entire workforce, via a nonvoluntary reduction in force, according to Federal News Network at the time. Exact figures on GSA and PBS worker layoffs were not immediately available. 

A spokesperson for the GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Heller’s ascension is already the second leadership change at the GSA so far in Trump’s second term. Former GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian also left his role in July after less than six months on the job, though he still remains at the agency as deputy administrator. 

Ehikian was replaced by Michael Rigas, an associate GSA administrator during the George W. Bush administration, as well as the acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s first term, a Heritage Foundation alum and a private sector CEO. It’s unclear why Ehikian left his former leadership post. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.