As reported yesterday (Tuesday, February 19) by Dan Sernovitz in the Washington Business Journal, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) is “weighing a significant expansion of its office space in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, where it…

It is a well-accepted fact that the federal leased space market is shrinking. This is troublesome, yet for investors the real question has been whether the shrinking inventory has also made investment opportunities more scarce. The answer, unfortunately,…

In written testimony on March 7th before the House, Dr. Dorothy Robyn, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Installations and Environment, confirmed that DoD has embarked upon a formal initiative to review the Department’s anti-terrorism/force protection (ATFP)…

Photo: GSA Blogs During the week of March 5–9, more than 6,400 GSA staffers—about half of the agency’s workforce—didn’t show up at their office. But those workers weren’t sick or slacking off—they were participating in National Telework Week by working from home, a shared workplace, or an office other than their own.  Participation more than […]

GSA’s aging inventory is not a new topic on this blog; a 2017 analysis revealed frequent lease extensions and a persistent decline in new construction as primary drivers. As the pandemic persists, with associated economic jitters and weak office space demand, it’s worth revisiting the trajectory of senescence in federal real property. The graphs above […]

“Fiscal cliff,” a phrase coined by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, is shorthand for the “many major fiscal events” that could happen simultaneously at the end of this year and in January 2013. Congress faces a serious conundrum: it can either let current policy (including automatic cuts in federal spending through sequestration, the expiration of […]

OK, so the Postal Service isn’t expanding – quite the opposite.  But, with all of the recent discussion of the decline of the U.S. Postal Service, we were intrigued by the attached, very cool, graphic illustrating the dramatic Post Office expansion from 1700 – 1900 (the Postal Service was officially formed in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin […]

Despite a recent sharp decline in overall lease inventory, the number of long-term GSA-leased assets has come roaring back, nearly exceeding the peak of 222 achieved at the start of 2013. We examined the early stages of this recovery last September, and the number of long-term leased buildings has grown substantially since then. This reflects […]

From Quincy, Florida, to Ketchikan, Alaska, field offices of the Social Security Administration (SSA) are being shuttered. Since 2010, 64 field offices have closed around the country, the largest number in the agency’s 79-year history. In…

UPDATE: The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved this legislation on June 29th. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), sponsor of the Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is set to approve S. 2178, the Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act, which aims to pare down […]

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…

Riddle: “What goes up and never comes down?” Answer: “Federal spending” Federal spending – especially if you measure it in constant dollars – hasn’t ALWAYS increased.  But, let’s face it, it mostly has. As Washingtonians, we’ve grown comfortable in the warm blanket the federal government provides.  Year after year demand, fueled through federal direct spending […]

The Las Vegas VA Medical Center opened its doors in August of this year. (photo: Marc Sanchez) As we alluded to in a yesterday’s post, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the midst of an ambitious program to build new veterans hospitals, clinics and outpatient centers throughout the nation. This past August, it […]

The Bipartisan Budget Act provides some modest relief to sequester-driven discretionary spending cuts. The red line illustrates the discretionary spending levels allowed under the sequester provisions. The green area shows the discretionary spending increases provided under the Ryan-Murray agreement. (Graph: House Budget Committee) “Clearly this is not a Grand Bargain but it was never meant […]