The initial list had included the headquarters of the Justice, HHS and Labor. Image: JL IMAGES/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe GSA posted, and then retracted within a matter of hours, a long list of federal buildings—including the headquarters of several Cabinet departments—that it considers “non-core” and subject to being put up for sale.
In initially posting the list, the GSA said that it owns and maintains 440 buildings with that designation “comprising almost 80 million rentable square feet across the nation and representing over $8.3 billion in recapitalization needs.”
“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce. We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding 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,” it said.
Those actions, it said, would start with market research and customer agency feedback regarding the potential disposition strategies for non-core assets, and will consider current use, occupancy, cost of agency relocation, and local market conditions when assessing disposition.
However, controversy arose quickly after posting of the list, causing the GSA initially to shorten the posted list and then delete it, replacing it with a statement that the list is “coming soon.” That list had included for example the headquarters of the Justice, HHS and Labor departments, of the OPM, FTC, FAA, FBI and GSA itself, and major annex buildings of the SSA and Agriculture Department in Washington, D.C.
GSA has been criticized for years by GAO and others for failing to dispose of unneeded or underused properties, criticisms that picked up when federal building occupancy rates fell as more employees worked offsite during and after the pandemic. As more employees have returned to onsite work under a Trump administration directive, though, many meanwhile have found that the downsizing that has occurred has left them with inadequate workspace.
The Trump administration meanwhile has been pushing to move more federal jobs outside the national capital area.
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