The decision to start writing a blog is a bit like dipping your toe in the water, knowing it’s cold yet forcing yourself to jump in anyway. As it turns out, it’s not so bad once you get used to it. In fact, once you warm up to blogging it can be pretty enjoyable. When […]
Ms. Cynthia Metzler, GSA Chief Administrative Services Officer, testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held yet another GSA oversight hearing yesterday (Wednesday, August 1), titled “GSA: A Review of Agency Mismanagement and Wasteful Spending—Part 2.” Following on the tails of the April House and Senate hearings […]
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has been suffering through budget cuts that have dramatically reduced funding for the construction, acquisition, renovations and even the basic maintenance of federal buildings. This has served to increase the federal government’s reliance on leased space, benefitting private-sector landlords. This article seeks to cast some light on what is […]
In true March Madness style, the GSA is hosting its Federal Building Bracket Challenge 2012, a showdown among sixteen of the most distinctive federal buildings in the United States. The challenge competes the best of the East Coast buildings with the best from rest of the nation. The mix – not surprisingly – includes substantial […]
Portfolio investors of GSA-leased properties will be pleased to learn that GSA gross rents have, on the whole, performed reasonably well in the past ten years. GSA leases typically do not contain rent escalations–in fact, in many leases rent declines after the firm term due to TI deamortization. Despite this, nominal rents across GSA’s leased […]
Earlier this month, the US General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Energy (DOE) issued a joint request for information calling on vendors to propose innovative building technologies in support of federal guidelines and goals, or, as the GSA announcement puts it, “technologies that have the potential to improve economic and environmental performance in federal and […]
Workplace injuries resulted in 4,383 worker deaths in 2012, the second lowest total since the census began in 1992. The leading causes, known as the “fatal four,” were falling, being struck by an object, electrocution, and…
The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued its RFP for the third generation of its broker and leasing support services contract – formerly the National Broker Contract (NBC), now named GSA Leasing Support Services (GLS). The new GLS contract provides broker and leasing services (i.e. market surveys, site visits, document preparation, and negotiation) for GSA’s […]
At least three Washington, D.C., area counties have expressed interest housing a new $1.2 billion FBI headquarters complex and the nearly 12,000 jobs it will bring. On December 8, 2011, the Senate Committee on Environment and…
A Notice of Availability was issued this month for the Point Fermin lighthouse, San Pedro, CA (photo: Point Fermin Lighthouse Society) “I want to marry a lighthouse keeper And keep him company I want to marry a lighthouse keeper And live by the side of the sea…” For more than a decade, ever since the […]
In the course of executing large construction transactions we often refer to “Davis-Bacon”. The Davis-Bacon Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on March 3, 1931, requires private contractors to pay “prevailing wages and benefits” to employees on most federal government construction projects, including those to be leased […]
After a record 136-day confirmation battle, Regina McCarthy became the 13th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 18, 2013. At her first public speech as administrator two weeks later, McCarthy told a crowd at Harvard Law School that regulating greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants “will spark business innovation, will grow jobs, […]
Long-time participants in the federal sector have clearly sensed that the volume of new lease-construct (i.e. build-to-suit) projects has declined substantially in recent years and that the government has been engaged in a spirited game of kick-the-can, leading to an unusually high volume of short term extensions. The result of these two factors is that the volume of space […]
The Colliers Government Solutions team represents owners of government-leased properties nationally. So, we travel a lot. This slideshow profiles my recent trip to Fresno, California. (Use arrow buttons to advance slides) https://www.capitolmarkets.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/Fresno Sign.jpg Fresno bills itself as the “Best Little City in the U.S.A.” We may debate the accuracy of this claim but clearly it’s […]
