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The Federal Employment Trend Revisited
Politicians and economists can be accused of willfully obfuscating the “government employment trend” to serve their ideology. As an example, Republican Senator Rand Paul and liberal economist Paul...
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Gensler Survey Shows Shrinking Office Spaces Need Balance
(Photo: GSA) Efforts to shrink federal and private sector real estate footprints are changing the workplace. Sharing non-dedicated spaces and adopting technologies that allow work anywhere, any time...
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Federal Courts Downsizing
Even as construction began on a long-awaited, 600,000 SF courthouse in Los Angeles this fall, efforts to downsize or close federal court facilities picked up in pace. Last week, the Administrative...
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Downsizing: It’s Going to Happen and Here’s Why
The trend in space utilization is towards greater efficiency, mobile work and collaborative workspaces. As we have discussed many times on this blog (including here and here), the federal government...
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Wanted: New Uses for Old Courthouses
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 has sparked a faint glow of optimism that agencies will plan more strategically for their space needs in the coming years. Last spring, a Government Accountability...
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Net Demand Has Peaked (at least for now)
You may have to squint to see it in the graph above but the federal lease inventory controlled by GSA has declined by a little more than a million square feet over the past year. This should be no...
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Obama’s FY 2016 Budget: Higher Wages, More Spending, Less Real Estate
There’s good news if you’re a federal employee, assuming that President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget is enacted intact: It will come with a 1.3 percent pay increase. Now, 1.3 percent isn’t a big hike,...
View ArticleCutting the Federal Workforce
The federal government is big. That is something about which few people of whatever political stripe would disagree. Excluding members of the armed services (but including Postal Service workers),...
View ArticleFreeze. Measure. Reduce: New Steps for Downsizing Federal Real Estate
In 2012, the Obama administration’s Freeze the Footprint policy order mandated that the federal government reduce its real estate footprint and curb its accumulation of unused or underused properties....
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Which Way The Political Wind Blows
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...
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Data Center Consolidation: Getting There, But Not There Yet
This figure from GAO’s report shows that roughly half of all federal data center a slated for closure and that, in fact, almost 1/3 of federal data centers have already been closed. So, by this metric,...
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The GSA Market Continues to Shrink
We have written a lot on this blog about how the GSA-leased property market is getting smaller, a trend we expect to continue easily for the next few years. Yes, one day this trend may reverse itself...
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Prospectus Approvals Will Drive Further Downsizing
The federal leased property inventory has been getting smaller since the end of 2012 and indications are that the trend will continue. One need only look at prospectus approvals to be certain of this...
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Social Security’s Shrinking Footprint
The Social Security Administration is shrinking—though, as more and more baby boomers arrive at the age of SSA entitlements, the demands on it are growing. A report issued late in August by the...
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“Reduce the Footprint” Faces Public and Political Headwinds for the Social...
With over 1,000 leased facilities, often in single-tenant buildings, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is a staple of many federal investor portfolios. Like other federal agencies, however, SSA...
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In Some Ways, the Swamp Has Already Been Drained
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith (Wikimedia Commons) As a candidate for the presidency, Donald Trump famously pledged to “drain the swamp” by, among other things, reducing the size of the federal government....
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CRE Insider Podcast
Recently, Ross Litkenhous of Altus Group invited me to participate as a guest on his CRE Insider podcast series. We covered a variety of subjects including the SWAMP Act, downsizing, GSA lease...
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Nation’s Capital Bears the Brunt of Most GSA Lease Downsizing
Since the end of 2012, GSA has been actively working to reduce the size of its leased footprint. Progress has been modest but consistent. At its December 2012 zenith, GSA leased 198.6 million square...
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Long-Term GSA-Leased Properties Are Stabilizing
The predominant federal leasing trend since the Great Recession is that the GSA-leased space inventory is shrinking. Though this overall inventory reduction has been occurring at a relatively moderate...
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SIOR Conference Presentation
Last week the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) held its Spring World Conference in Washington, DC. I was fortunate to be asked to participate in a panel discussion entitled “Federal...
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