As we noted late last year, Rep. William “Bill” Shuster (R-Pa.) has replaced Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) as chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee—the body that provides oversight for public buildings issues—in the 113th Congress. (Mica was forced to step down after six years as chairman or ranking member because of term limits set […]

Photo: GSA Blogs More than six years after ground was broken—and after a nearly two-year construction stoppage—the federal government officially opened the new NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction at the University of Maryland’s M Square Research and Technology Park last week (October 15). The 268,762-square-foot, four-story building is now home to more than […]

The Obama administration’s “OMB Report Pursuant to the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012,” released last Friday (September 14, 2012), outlines the “devastating” and “deeply destructive” impacts on virtually all aspects of the federal budget that will take…

Competitors vie for neither lucrative NBA contracts nor sizable office bracket pools in GSA’s March Madness-style Federal Building Challenge. An annual competition between sustainable buildings around the country, the contest awards the winner only bragging rights for a year. But in reality the stakes are high: educating the building community, government and public about innovations […]

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed outrage while peppering current and former GSA leaders with hard-hitting questions about their role in the 2010 Western Regions Conference scandal—which was the subject of a recent inspector general’s report on excessive spending—yesterday, in the first of this week’s four scheduled Congressional hearings.  The […]

This morning the District of Columbia Building Industry Association (DCBIA) hosted its seminar entitled “GSA Downsizing – A Perfect Storm Looming”, consisting of a panel of government officials and private sector professionals.  We were there and here is some of what we learned: Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton reported that Congress is expected to (finally) hold […]

It’s a simple proposition: Build us a new building, even something as simple as a parking garage, and you can have the old one. That old building might be an office tower, a courthouse, or some other large public structure. It might even be another parking garage. We say “might be” because, to judge by […]

With doors still locked at federal buildings around the country, many are wondering: Who is maintaining security during the funding hiatus? For about 9,000 facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the responsibility belongs to the Federal Protective Service (FPS). Part of the DHS, the […]

Which federal agency oversees a daily cash flow of $89 billion, disbursing more than $1.6 trillion in non-defense payments each year and collecting more than $3 trillion annually—which makes it responsible for administering the world’s largest collection system? The Financial Management Service (FMS), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, performs many of […]

Washington Office Center on left and Washington Design Center on right (with Washington Office Center partially visible behind it) Today the Washington Business Journal reported that Vornado has selected a buyer for its Washington Office Center (409 3rd Street, SW) and Washington Design Center (300 D Street, SW) properties in Washington, DC’s Southwest submarket. The two […]

Colliers today released its Q1 report profiling the North America industrial market.  It demonstrates that the overall outlook is bullish for manufacturing, intermodal transportation, port activity, and thus for industrial real estate. The increase in specialized manufacturing has also translated into increased demand for industrial space. In Q1 2012, there was positive net absorption in North […]

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leases private property at a cost of billions of dollars—$5.7 billion annually, to be precise, spread out over more than 8,000 leases. Every year, the agency claims, it saves taxpayers…

Constitution Center (photo: CoStar) As was recently reported in Real Estate Finance and Investment, MetLife is under contract to acquire Constitution Center for what could be the highest total price paid for a building in Washington, DC this year. David Nassif Associates listed the 1.4 MSF office building located at located at 400 7th Street, […]

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House In recognition of the fact that May is National Preservation Month, we’re taking a brief look at GSA’s historic preservation efforts. More than a quarter of the 1,600 buildings owned by GSA, containing more than 60 million square feet of space, are listed in or eligible for the National Register […]