GSA slashes must-sell property list from 443 to 8

File this in the eyes-were-bigger-than-their-stomachs category.

The General Services Administration, Uncle Sam’s chief landlord, has cut its target list of non-core properties it wants to dump from 443 down to just eight — all of which had previously been identified as targets by the previous administration.

The list now totals just 2 million square feet of space, down from the nearly 78 million that GSA had first suggested earlier this month when it released its original target list.

GSA said it was slammed with an “overwhelming response” to its initial list.

“In order to achieve our goal, in alignment with the president’s direction, and to drive maximum value for the federal real estate footprint, we decided to use a more incremental approach focusing on a shorter list of assets that have already been evaluated,” the agency said.

GSA said it still sees big problems with the federal portfolio after decades of unfunded maintenance issues and changing government needs, but it plans to tackle those in an “orderly fashion.”

The agency also said it has given a heads-up to the tenants of the right properties that are on the new list.

Entirely gone from the list are the more than 40 properties in Washington.

Those had included the FBI headquarters and Justice Department building, both on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Agriculture South Building on Independence Avenue, and headquarters for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development departments.

Also gone from the list is the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco, which President Trump had previously singled out as “one of the ugliest structures” in that city.

GSA had called the previous list a compendium of “non-core” properties that had become “obsolete and unsuitable” for federal use.

GSA said to expect other properties to be added to its list “regularly.”

But the trimmed-down list signals a major shift for the GSA, which had appeared to be going for broke with the original list that suggested selling off more than 40 properties in Washington.

The new list doesn’t target a single property in Washington.

GSA described the updated list as “assets identified for accelerated disposition.”

“GSA is focused on rightsizing the federal real estate portfolio to reduce the burden on the American taxpayer while also delivering space that enables its agency customers to achieve their missions,” the agency said. “This initiative aims to engage the market, attract interested parties, and inform strategies that will expedite the disposition of federal assets.”

The largest property on the new list is the Peachtree Summit Federal Building in Atlanta, with more than 800,000 square feet of space.

The others are the William O. Lipinski Federal Building in Chicago; the La Branch Federal Building in Houston; the building at 8930 Ward Parkway in Kansas City; the San Antonio Federal Building West; the Joe L. Evins building in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Social Security Trust Fund Building in Bridgeton, New Jersey; and the building at 4700 River Road in Riverdale Park, Maryland, which houses Agriculture Department offices.

GSA said the Agriculture Department tenants at the River Road building in Maryland are already moving to another space under the department’s control.

The Social Security employees in the New Jersey building will move to another space later this year, GSA said, though it declined to provide details until the procurement process is finished.

GSA has been under pressure to slim the federal portfolio as remote work options have left buildings empty.

President Trump’s push for government spending cuts had seemed to be another shot in the arm, leading to the earlier list of 438 properties.