This story has been updated to note subsequent actions taken by the federal government.
The federal government on Tuesday briefly posted a list of more than 400 properties destined for disposal across the country, before taking it down without explanation.
The move came as the U.S. General Services Administration cut the workforce of the group that oversees its real estate portfolio.
The U.S. General Services Administration on Tuesday shared the list of what it called “non-core” assets, totaling nearly 80 million rentable square feet, that it’s considering offloading. The GSA said the divestment could potentially save more than $430 million in annual operating costs. Late Tuesday, the list had been whittled down to at least 320 properties, including none in Washington, D.C. By Wednesday morning, the list was no longer available.
The GSA also confirmed late Tuesday that it had fired people at the agency but did not specify how many.
"Members of the General Service Administration's (GSA) Public Buildings Service (PBS) were notified on Monday, March 3rd, that they had been identified as part of GSA’s Reduction in Force (RIF) and reorganization plan and were being separated from federal service," GSA said in a statement sent to CoStar News.
The GSA said the job elimination notifications were part of a series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump including The Hiring Freeze and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative.
One large landlord with federal agency tenants was notified this week that several members of the GSA team it worked with had been fired.
As for the planned office dispositions, the GSA said in a statement it would consider such moves “in an orderly fashion” as it aims to cut space, simultaneously handling the mandated return to office of federal employees and other changes to the government workforce under the new presidential administration.
“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” the agency said in its statement. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues.”
Government to sell properties across the US
Some of the properties slated for disposal on the posted list have previously been known to be eyed by the GSA.
In the nation’s capital, locations including the Wilbur Wright Federal Building, at 600 Independence Ave. SW, were previously flagged by the Public Buildings Reform Board, which analyzes the state of the federal portfolio.
Meanwhile in Chicago, properties within the sprawling federal campus at the south end of the Loop business district that were deemed non-core on the now-removed list include the 42-story, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed John C. Kluczynski Federal Building at 230 S. Dearborn St.
The Kluczynski tower houses federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service as well as an office of Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin.
Other Loop properties on the non-core list include the 27-story Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building at 77 W. Jackson Blvd.
The GSA said its Public Buildings Service team is expected to engage in market research and customer agency feedback on the potential disposition strategies for the properties, adding it would consider current uses, occupancy and the cost of an agency relocation.
It added it will consider sale-leasebacks, ground leases and other forms of public/private partnerships.
Meanwhile, CoStar reported the Department of Government Efficiency is amping up its efforts to end federal leases around the country.