As of last month, the Automated Advanced Acquisition Program (AAAP) still allowed GSA and interested landlords to enter into leases of 5 years, 10 years or 5 years with a fixed-price five-year renewal option. However, this month saw the most significant revision to the AAAP program in many years – no longer will landlords have […]
Walter Reed Hospital (photo: AP/Luis M. Alvarez) From 1909 through mid-2011, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC, originally known as the Walter Reed General Hospital) was the U.S. Army’s flagship medical center. Located on a 110-acre site in Upper Northwest Washington, D.C., the center was named after Major Walter Reed, an army physician who […]
Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE: HIW) has announced that it has sold three government leased properties encompassing 553,000 square feet for $86.5 million or $156.42 PRSF. While the pricing may appear somewhat low on a PRSF basis,…
DARPA will move from 3701 N. Fairfax Dr. (left) into 675 N. Randolph St. (right). The John Shooshan Company has completed the 13-story, 350,000 square foot home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at Founders Square, 675 N Randolph Street in Arlington, Virginia. DARPA reportedly signed its first rent commencement SLA yesterday (retroactive to […]
The Colliers Government Solutions team represents owners of government-leased properties nationally. So, we travel a lot. This slideshow profiles my trip earlier this year to Kansas City–both Missouri and Kansas. Yes, there is snow on the ground because I took these photos several months ago and I’m just now posting them to the blog. (Use arrow buttons to […]
Which federal agency oversees the operation of the nation’s 100+ power-producing nuclear reactors, as well as about 36 research and test reactors? Created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) began operations on January 19, 1975. Its mission is “to license and regulate the nation’s civilian use of byproduct, source, […]
The mission of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is to foster innovation and competitiveness by providing high-quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guiding domestic and international intellectual property (IP) policy, and delivering IP information and education worldwide. The agency advises the president, the secretary of commerce, and other federal agencies on IP policy, protection, […]
You may have to squint to see it in the graph above but the federal lease inventory controlled by GSA has declined by a little more than a million square feet over the past year. This should be no surprise because in 2012 OMB issued its “Freeze the Footprint” memorandum making it clear that the federal real estate inventory […]
The federal debt held by the public in the second quarter of 2014 was $12.57 trillion. That equates to 72.6% of GDP, down slightly from the post-WWII peak of 74.0% that was recorded in the first quarter of this year. This slight reduction is the only good news that will be reported for the remainder of this article. Rapidly […]
The predominant federal leasing trend since the Great Recession is that the GSA-leased space inventory is shrinking. Though this overall inventory reduction has been occurring at a relatively moderate pace, the number of long-term leased properties has fallen much more rapidly, as we’ve reported previously. The decline is because GSA is still entering into many […]
Recently, pre-solicitation notices posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website (FBO) have been indicating GSA’s desire to enter into longer lease contracts. FBO notices advertise GSA’s requirements for upcoming procurements, including the length of lease term that the government is willing to execute. Therefore, these FBO notices are a good leading indicator of future leasing […]
The GSA property market has been characterized by a relative scarcity of long-term leases. This unwillingness of federal agencies to commit to long-term contracts is due to budget distress, mission uncertainty and challenges complying with OMB mandates to reconfigure workplaces, consolidate and downsize. Though all of those factors still persist, GSA, as acquisition authority for these agencies, now […]
The government right now is, well, it’s in turmoil. That’s voiced as an opinion but it feels like actual, quantifiable fact. The United States is still fighting its way out of a deep and prolonged recession, the government has been operating under a series of continuing resolutions for nearly two years, the budget faces sequestration, Congress […]
Looking at remaining term of federal leases relative to building age, an interesting pattern emerges: the leases appear in “waves”. The scattergraph above shows office buildings that are at least 85% leased by federal tenants. We’ve plotted every building based on its age and the remaining term of its government-leased space. The size of each dot corresponds with the […]
