GSA has announced the sale and transfer of a 427-acre portion of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills, Minn., to Ramsey County for $28 million, continuing an effort to dispose of underutilized real property.
GSA said the deal transfers ownership of 397 acres to Ramsey County immediately, while the remaining 30 acres will be transferred to the county after it conducts environmental remediation, expected to take approximately three years.
It praised the conveyance as a complex and innovative transaction that creates local jobs in environmental remediation, building demolition and construction industries through a $23 million contract.
GSA has been criticized for years, and most recently in several more House hearings, for holding onto unneeded property, incurring maintenance costs and missing out on opportunities to sell them to bring in revenue for the government.
GSA said it is currently hosting auctions, requesting industry input, and offering proposed exchanges so it can put more surplus and underutilized properties to new uses, noting that since 2010 it completed nearly 400 disposal transactions nationwide, generating $145 million in proceeds and eliminating more than 12,500 acres of excess land.
GSA also recently announced it accepted a $19.5 million bid for the Georgetown Heating Plant in Washington, D.C., moving that federal property–which has become sort of a poster child for GSA inaction–one step closer to a sale and off of the government’s books.
