As illustrated in the graph above, the average age of buildings leased by GSA has hovered at or around 15 years through the 2000s. Yet, recently that figure has been trending older. The GSA leased inventory is aging. But why? There are probably two primary drivers propelling this trend. The first is that GSA’s leasing corps has been leaning […]
In the 2015 tax year the District of Columbia will implement a new assessment method that will substantially increase real estate taxes for most office properties. This method relies on comparable sales instead of evaluating net cash flow. The result is that assessments are expected to rise such that $10.1 billion will be added to the […]
From the 7,000-acre Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Services Center in Beltsville, Md.; more than 200 of its more than 500 structures are currently vacant or underutilized. (Source: Oversight and Government Reform Committee Flickr site) As we reported last month, although Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) had to resign as chairman of the House Transportation and […]
A highly-efficient HVAC system, locally sourced stone and recycled construction waste are just a few of the sustainable features at a new federal building complex in Hazelton, West Virginia. An innovative laundry water recycling system is also expected to save over 2 million gallons of water per year. But design elements that bring daylight into […]
If you are the owner of a GSA-leased property, you’ve probably recognized by now that there is no holdover clause in your lease. This doesn’t mean the government cannot hold over; it only means that it will pay no penalty for doing so. So it’s no surprise that GSA leases routinely lapse into holdover status. […]
This week the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1734, known as the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA), with voting carried by the Republican-led House, largely along party lines. The legislation describes its purpose as “To decrease the deficit by realigning, consolidating, selling, disposing, and improving the efficiency of Federal buildings and other civilian real property, and […]
GSAXCHANGE, the investment sales arm of Colliers Government Solutions, has published its Spring 2014 “Government-Leased Assets” report, which includes an overview of sales activity and trends in the federal sector. Driven by the lack of product…
If government agencies could make New Year’s resolutions, improving energy and water efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars would be good ones. And some of the support needed to keep up their resolve would come from a GSA program, Green Proving Ground (GPG). Through GPG, new and underutilized technologies are tested in federal facilities to analyze which […]
UPDATE: We updated this article the day after first publishing it in order to tune up our stats. The new graph (above) tracks the percentage of leases that have less than 3 years of remaining lease term as opposed to the number of leases that were executed for total terms of less than 3 years. We found that the latter […]
The Bannister Federal Complex, located at 1500 and 2000 E. Bannister Road in south Kansas City, Mo., 13 miles south of downtown, will be largely shut down within the next two years, according to a GSA…
(Photo: Orygun, Wikimedia) As we’ve reported in numerous postings throughout the past year (click on “BRAC” in the “Categories” to the right), the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process has led to the closure of more than 350 military bases—and the movement of many military operations from one base to another—since 1988. Whether we’ll experience […]
Which federal agencies are authorized to lease property from the private sector? If you had asked that question of any federal official before last month, you might have drawn no more than an educated guess, if not an outright blank. Certainly there is the General Services Administration (GSA), which acts as a kind of super-landlord […]
The David W. Dyer Courthouse in Miami. An elegant building in the process of slow deterioration. (Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy of the Library of Congress) Continuing his examination of underperforming and vacant federal real estate, last Friday (March 8) Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) held the first field hearing of the House Oversight and Government […]
On the second day of congressional hearings on the GSA Las Vegas Conference scandal, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, led by Committee Chairman John Mica…
