In honor of the Mars rover Curiosity’s successful landing on the Red Planet early yesterday morning (Monday, August 6), we’ve decided to take a look at the agency behind that impressive feat: the National Aeronautics and…
What little-known agency occupies the third-largest federal facility in the Washington, D.C., area (after the Pentagon and the Ronald Reagan building)? Last year, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), part of the Department of Defense, moved into…
Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) Rep. John Mica will surely be back to serve in the 113th Congress. Today he soundly defeated Republican challenger Sandy Adams to win the primary election in Florida’s 7th District. This victory was hard-fought because Mica – through a quirk of redistricting due to the 2010 census – was drawn into […]
Since groundbreaking in 2009, 160,000 truckloads of earth have been excavated, 250,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured and 40 miles of plumbing pipes have been installed in Southeast D.C., all in preparation for a…
President Biden signing the acceptance returning the United States to the Paris Agreement. (Photo: Associated Press) Following his inauguration ceremony on January 20th, President Biden settled into the Oval Office to execute a stack of executive orders and other actions. The third document he signed serves to return the United States to the Paris Agreement, […]
On May 30, Portland, Oregon, celebrated the completion of a $139 million renovation of the 18-story Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building (EGWW). First opened in 1975, the boxy, concrete-and-steel high rise, aging home to the IRS,…
Howard T. Markey Federal Courthouse, home to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (photo: waymarking.com) Looming large in the federal lease portfolio and in the minds of federal property investors is the “prospectus lease.” Numbering just over 200 nationwide, these are the GSA leases that exceed $3.095 million in annual levelized rent (net of most […]
Rep. Jeff Denham Presiding Over House Subcommittee Hearing On the second day of congressional hearings on the GSA Las Vegas Conference scandal, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, led by Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), sought detailed information about […]
Scene From Awards Ceremony There has been a tsunami of press this entire stemming from the Las Vegas Conference that led to the resignation of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and the related firing of GSA’s Public Buildings Commissioner, Bob Peck. The $822,751 Western Regions Conference, which is the subject of the scandal, has received a […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently posted the January 2015 Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures and the results show that the measure declined 0.1% from a year ago*. This would be of little consequence to most non-economists but federal landlords must take note because the decline in CPI–for most GSA-leased properties–means a decline in rental income. First a little […]
Even before the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, Congressional Republicans and Democrats sought common ground over energy efficiency. Most of the bills and other efforts have stalled or struck out, including the broadly supported but so far still-contentious bill known as the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (S. 1392). Also known as Shaheen-Portman, that […]
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,…
