The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which leases office space on behalf of most federal agencies, has begun using a streamlined lease acquisition program in several markets across the nation and will continue to expand into new markets. We’ve profiled this program, known as the Automated Advanced Acquisition Program (AAAP), previously on this blog; and we […]
Watching the National Science Foundation shuffle in the starting blocks, most of the Northern Virginia real estate community has expressed certainty that, especially in this budget environment, NSF is unlikely to be moving from its present…
Recently adopted standards in the District of Columbia now require new buildings to meet LEED standards. That is, they must meet the Green Building Council’s energy-efficient, environmentally friendly requirements of building design and construction, operation and maintenance, and, what is less easy to control, interaction with the surrounding neighborhood. All new buildings in the District […]
During the first half of this year Congress has hosted a number of hearings, both on Capitol Hill and in various cities across the United States, that provide a clear view of its objectives regarding federal real estate. All of these hearings have one goal in common: reduce costs. This goal is not new of course, but faced with the prospect […]
The GSA is committed to responsible caretaking of its historic building legacy, which includes courthouses, post offices, border stations and offices around the country. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (AARA) is facilitating the agency’s…
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. It was established in 1908 as an unnamed force of special agents and, after several name changes, it eventually became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in […]
First Labor Day Parade on September 5, 1882, New York City Today marks the nation’s 118th official celebration of Labor Day, established by law in 1894 when Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to make Labor Day a federal holiday on the first Monday of each September. It’s roots extend back […]
It’s Memorial Day weekend and it happens to also be the first weekend of a new endeavor by our team to post a new article every single calendar day. So, while others frolic on the beach or man their grills, we write. Our topic this weekend is obvious: we will write about our nation’s military […]
OMB Acting Director Jeffrey Zients On Friday, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director, Jeffrey Zients, issued a memorandum effectively freezing the federal inventory of leased space. The memorandum entitled “Promoting Efficient Spending to Support Agency Operations” addressed a wide range of cost reduction initiatives including reductions in travel costs, conference expenditures and more […]
While tracking sales of single-tenant GSA-leased properties over the last several years, we’ve noticed some interesting trends which won’t come as a surprise to experienced GSA investors, but may be of interest to new entrants to this specialized market. We catalogued a total of 183 transactions for the period 2011-13. The map below shows the […]
One of the most important (and perplexing) concepts we run into on a daily basis in the GSA property marketplace is the concept of “cap rate.” The cap rate has long been used as a benchmark for pricing commercial real estate across all product types, but in the 1990s and into the 2000s became more […]
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 being caught or trapped. Federal responsibility for reducing these and other workplace hazards belongs to a small agency within […]
Source: dhs.gov Last August 21, federal workers in the heart of Lower Manhattan saw a terrible situation: A disturbed man with a gun entered a building in which passports were issued and immigration cases decided. He killed a security guard, then turned the gun on himself, leaving witnesses and investigators to wonder what had driven […]
The Colliers Government Solutions team represents owners of government-leased properties nationally. So, we travel a lot. This slideshow profiles my recent trip to Hampton Roads, Virginia. (Use arrow buttons to advance slides) https://www.capitolmarkets.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/Hampton Roads Location.jpg Hampton Roads is in Southeastern Virginia. It is home to the United States Navy, chosen because it is one of the world’s […]
