On January 20, 2015, by a vote of 94 to 5, the U.S. Senate authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to create a voluntary “Tenant Star” program whose mission is, with the use of market incentives and…

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,…

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established new energy-related requirements and standards for federal buildings and for the agencies that oversee them. Specifically, it required GSA to establish an Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings to coordinate green building information and activities within GSA and with other federal agencies. Since then, GSA has […]

The widely used abbreviation for military construction is MILCON (also written variously as MilCon, Milcon or milcon). This typically refers to any construction, alteration, development, conversion or extension of any kind carried out with respect to a military installation, including those for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force; the Department of Defense; the […]

Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Tom Carper (D-DE), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Scott Brown (R-MA) at press conference announcing postal reform plan (Photo: Charles Dharapak/Associated Press) In a 62–37 vote late last month (April 25), the Senate approved the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789), a bipartisan bill that promises financial relief for the U.S. Postal […]

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 […]

GSA announced this afternoon that it has chosen the Trump Organization as the preferred team to redevelop the historic Old Post Office building.  This apparently concludes an effort which has been going on for more than a decade.  In December 2000 GSA submitted to Congress a plan for redevelopment of the Old Post Office; and, […]

If you think the world of government real estate is a staid and boring place, think again. There is a lot going on: big transactions, important policy and outright scandal. 2012 was no exception. We published 208 blog articles last year offering our observations on government real estate as events unfolded. A few of you […]

On February 13th GSA submitted its FY 2013 Congressional Justification, an outline of GSA’s planned programs and budget.  At 243 pages it’s not an easy read, but there are some notable discoveries.  The following is our summary of some of the more interesting features of this year’s Congressional Justification.  Our focus, of course, is on […]

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 […]

(Photo: Orygun, Wikimedia) As we’ve reported in numerous postings throughout the past year (click on “BRAC” in the “Categories” to the right), the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process has led to the closure of more than 350 military bases—and the movement of many military operations from one base to another—since 1988. Whether we’ll experience […]

Moody’s website reports U.S. debt rating remains Aaa…for now It was widely reported yesterday (Tuesday, September 11) that the United States is in danger of another credit downgrade, this time by Moodys. In its press release the credit rating agency said that it would likely downgrade the U.S. government’s debt rating from Aaa to Aa1 […]

We recently discovered Pinterest. The service brands itself as “a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.”  Well, we love government real estate so we decided to start our own Pinterest site entitled exactly that: “Government Real Estate”.  It’s a place for us to post some of our favorite photos of government projects, people […]

(Cartoon: John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune) With both the House and Senate out of session this week, only four days remain for lawmakers and the White House to agree on a plan to reduce the deficit in order to avert sequestration—the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts (this year) required by the Budget Control Act […]