Trump’s Federal Building Selloff Runs Into $26B Repair Backlog
At least 62 properties need at least $100 million each in fixes
By Greg Cornfield June 16, 2026 6:15 pm
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Donald Trump’s plan to shrink the federal government’s real estate footprint has run into an 11-figure obstacle: The buildings need a lot of work.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has identified more than $25.8 billion in maintenance needs across federally owned buildings, including at least 62 properties that each require $100 million or more in repairs, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, the Public Buildings Reform Board estimates the federal backlog could exceed $50 billion.
The bottleneck is complicating the Trump Administration’s push to consolidate federal office space and sell off underutilized government property.
GSA Administrator Ed Forst, whom President Trump tapped to oversee the federal landlord agency, also said the plan is being slowed by congressional approval rules. Any repair project costing roughly $4 million or more must clear a so-called prospectus threshold, a process that can take more than a year before the work can be bid out.
The issue has become more pressing while many agencies still occupy outdated buildings. Earlier in Trump’s second term, during the height of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) push, the GSA briefly posted a list of 443 federal buildings it was considering for sale, then pulled the list the following day.
Forst said the agency is now trying to take a more deliberate approach. But he argued that consolidating federal offices and selling excess property often requires the government to first invest in the buildings it wants to keep.
Even GSA’s headquarters has become an example, with 40 percent of the building deemed as unusable. GSA data show that more than $1 billion in repairs went uncompleted in fiscal year 2025 because proposals were not approved before the fiscal year ended. The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in New York City needs $410 million in repairs, according to GSA data cited by Bloomberg.
Congress has also diverted more than $15 billion from the Federal Buildings Fund, which collects rent from federal agencies to pay for maintenance. Last month, 22 federal agency heads asked lawmakers to raise the prospectus threshold and give GSA more access to the fund.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
