Trump Administration Looks to Sell Hundreds of Federal Properties Across U.S.

As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cancels hundreds of federal leases, the General Services Administration is taking things to a new level by potentially unloading hundreds of federally owned properties. 

The GSA is considering selling hundreds of underutilized assets across the United States and its territories, posting a list to its website on Tuesday of 443 “non-core” assets that could potentially get the ax. The vast majority of those properties are offices, comprising nearly 80 million square feet in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with a combined $8.3 billion in recapitalization costs, per the GSA. The agency said it plans to retain “core” assets, such as courthouses, ports of entry and properties “critical to our national defense and law enforcement.”

The GSA’s Public Buildings Service (PBS) will research strategies and court agency feedback on how best to dispose of the properties, tallying a given building’s current use, occupancy levels, relocation costs and local market conditions, the GSA said in a statement. The PBS will also consider strategies other than just selling certain buildings outright, including sale-leasebacks, ground leases and other public-private partnerships. Disposing of the federal government’s non-core assets could save more than $430 million in annual costs, the agency said.

“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” the GSA PBS said in a statement. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these long-standing issues. GSA’s decisive action to dispose of non-core assets leverages the private sector, drives improvements for our agency customers, and best serves local communities.”

Some of the properties on the GSA’s list are raising eyebrows, not just in terms of their current use, but also their sheer size. While many of the assets are relatively small ancillary offices, others currently house the headquarters of massive federal agencies, ranging in the hundreds of thousands to well over 1 million square feet. 

That includes the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters at 4600 Silver Hill Road — North and 4600 Silver Hill Road — South in Suitland, Md., at roughly 804,000 and 664,000 square feet, respectively; the roughly 1.1 million-square-foot property at 300 North Los Angeles Street in Downtown L.A.; the roughly 2 million-square-foot U.S. Department of Agriculture South Building in D.C.; the nearly 1.5 million-square-foot James V. Forrestal Building in D.C., which houses the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters; and the nearly 1.4 million-square-foot Frances Perkins Building, which hosts the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters. 

The GSA also included its own headquarters on the list, the 522,181-square-foot building at 1800 F Street NW in D.C. that it has called home since 1949. 

Representatives for the GSA did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. 

The Trump administration’s widespread effort to shrink the federal government has poured rocket fuel on the GSA’s years-long downsizing policy, which began under the Obama administration in the early 2010s. Earlier this week, the GSA announced a new office-sharing program it dubbed “Space Match,” which aims to connect agencies in need of office space to accommodate newly returning federal employees with agencies that have room to spare. The GSA said the goal of the program was not only to cut costs, but also improve collaboration between departments. 

Meanwhile, the non-governmental DOGE has worked frantically over the past month to cancel thousands of federal contracts, grants and leases in the name of efficiency. DOGE as of Tuesday claimed to have terminated 748 leases totaling over 9.5 million square feet, saving approximately $660 million in annual rent costs. Yet just how much DOGE put its thumb on the scale in terms of lease cancellations was not immediately apparent; many of the leases it claims to have cut had already been terminated before President Trump took office, or were slated for termination this year. 

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