Normally flowing with 3,300 employees, plus visitors, the entrance to GSA headquarters is eerily quiet. **UPDATE: Since the 2013 Shutdown, GSA has issued a new policy determination that allows for the agency to continue operating and making payments from the Federal Buildings Fund. In the event of a prolonged shutdown, GSA would gradually scale back operations […]
Kevin Warsh, a Federal Reserve governor during the Great Recession, noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year, “If you’ve seen one financial crisis, you’ve seen one financial crisis.” That is to say, all…
Exterior Rendering of Wayne Aspinall Building (Source: GSA) Earlier this week (Wednesday, February 20), GSA rededicated the 95-year-old, 41,562-square-foot Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colo., after 23 months of construction that addressed the dual challenges of historic preservation and sustainability. The goal of this $15 million American Recovery and […]
“The chief business of the American people is business,” said President Calvin Coolidge, speaking before a convention of newspaper editors 90 years ago. (His bon mot is often shortened to “the business of America is business.”) But just what kind of business? Coolidge, after all, made his remark in the golden age of the American […]
It’s hardly news that the largest single consumer of energy in the United States is the federal government, with its stock of 360,000 buildings and 650,000 fleet vehicles. What is surprising, though, is the extent to…
Federal Center South Rendering (Source: GSA) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed by President Obama on February 13, 2009, called for major new construction and the energy-efficient modernization of federal office buildings, courthouses and land ports across the country. This is the third piece in a series in which we examine some of the […]
Expatriat British novelist and travel writer Lawrence Durrell, writing in Reflections on a Marine Venus, described a “rare but by no means unknown affliction of spirit” that he dubbed “islomania.” “These are people,” he stated, “who find islands somehow irresistible.” In that spirit, we continue our series on federally owned islands, the first of which […]
Less than two weeks from what is shaping up to be a very close presidential election there is no shortage of pundits offering theories on which candidate will prevail. Many so-called experts look to the past to predict the future. Comic-strip creator Randall Munroe does the same with hilarious results…
As the Northeastern United States begins what looks to be a prolonged and expensive recovery from the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy earlier this week (beginning on Sunday, October 29), we thought this an appropriate time to profile the federal agency whose mission is “to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as […]
GSAXCHANGE, the investment sales arm of Colliers Government Solutions, has published its Fall 2013 “Government Market Insight” report, which includes an overview of sales activity and trends in the federal sector. Despite the dire headlines and GSA’s current budget woes, the reliance on leased space by the federal government will likely only increase, albeit at a […]
Which small agency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury auctions and issues more than $9 trillion in securities every year? The Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD)—under authority derived from Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which empowers Congress to borrow money on the credit of the United States—borrows the money needed to […]
Recent revelations of secretive Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) data collection, in consort with the NSA, may lead some to wonder: what does the DEA do, anyway? It is a forty-year-old agency under the Justice Department (DOJ), and pursues a mission to enforce laws and regulations that combat illegal use of narcotics and other controlled substances. […]
Our GSAXCHANGE team, the investment sales and finance arm of Colliers Government Solutions, just published their inaugural “Government Market Insight” report, which includes an overview of sales activity and trends in the federal sector. Among their findings: 1. The trend of 10-year U.S. Treasuries versus GSA-leased property cap rates demonstrates that the spread widened significantly […]
In response to an official request by Mayor Gray and effective May 23, 2012, GSA has expanded the District of Columbia’s Central Employment Area (CEA) to include the St. Elizabeths East Campus and the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (highlighted in yellow) paving the way for federal agencies to locate there. While the existing office […]
