(Photo: GSA) Federal offices remain closed or short-staffed for the shutdown, but eventually copiers will hum and coffee will perk again. While imagining that future, it’s also possible to wonder how the federal workplace will look in the months and years to come. According to a video released in September from the General Services Administration (GSA), […]
After a cliffhanger Senate vote on July 31, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has its first permanent director in 7 years. B. Todd Jones, acting director since 2011, now officially heads a…
“Extreme Leasing” is a periodic feature profiling the biggest, smallest, highest, oldest, newest and other extremes in the government lease inventory. 600 Dulany Street (center) flanked by four additional PTO office buildings. Photo: CoStar The largest GSA lease in the United States can be found in Alexandria, VA. It is the 2,386,940 RSF home of […]
(Photo: GSA) Efforts to shrink federal and private sector real estate footprints are changing the workplace. Sharing non-dedicated spaces and adopting technologies that allow work anywhere, any time have been expected to improve employee productivity even as square footage per worker constricts. But the 2013 U.S. Workplace Survey by design and architecture firm Gensler reveals […]
Colliers International has released its 2013 Global Office Outlook noting that the world economy has seen recent headwinds from the smoldering eurozone debt crisis, slowing growth in China’s economy and the forecasted American fiscal cliff. Yet, our firm’s overall global view of office real estate is moderately positive. Most country economies remain fragile but office […]
With more than 56,000 employees—including about 5,700 new jobs that have resulted from BRAC-related movements—Fort George G. Meade is the largest employer in Maryland, the fifth-largest employment center in the state, and has the third-largest workforce…
With the recent surge in congressional activity towards infrastructure spending it is worth noting a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released in June entitled Federal Investment, 1962 to 2018. That report provides a great overview of the investments the federal government has made over several decades in a variety of areas, including infrastructure. Federal investment […]
Several times on this blog I’ve observed that GSA has been engaged in a spirited game of can-kicking when it comes to leasing. Much of this has been due to intense budget distress from record deficits, rising debt, the sequester, and a series of continuing resolutions, all cast against a backdrop of hopeless political dysfunction. Without long-term clarity of […]
With over 1,000 leased facilities, often in single-tenant buildings, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is a staple of many federal investor portfolios. Like other federal agencies, however, SSA has been dutifully implementing the “Reduce the Footprint”…
Bannister Federal Complex (photo: www.thepitch.com) 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 announcement made last Wednesday, February 15. The 5.1 million-square-foot, 300-acre complex was dedicated on […]
One of the great frustrations landlords encounter with GSA is the Government’s frequent and seemingly reflexive insistence on termination rights. We conducted a quick analysis of 1,165 procurements conducted by GSA in the past 7 years and found that in 70% of them GSA requested a termination right. GSA’s default expectation for most of these is […]
The relationship between the 112th Congress and GSA is not particularly cozy. The House of Representatives, under the leadership of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman, John Mica (R-FL), has sparred with GSA over efforts to relocate…
Near the end of his Administration, on December 16, 2016, President Barack Obama made a Republican politician very happy. Jeff Denham, first elected to Congress from California’s 19th District and reelected three times from the redrawn…
It has been almost two weeks since the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee convened its May 22nd hearing entitled “Saving Taxpayer Dollars: Freezing the Federal Real Estate Footprint”. I’m just now getting around to writing about this–a testament to how busy things have been for […]
