Institutional and commercial facilities that rely on taxpayer financing have been grappling with an aging stock of unused or underused buildings and a lack of funds to maintain them properly. One critical decision for facility managers is what to with these unwanted facilities — sell, lease or demolish.
The federal government’s landlord, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) faces the same challenge, and it recently made a move to dispose of its unwanted facilities.
Initially, the GSA published a list of hundreds of non-core assets designated for sale or disposal. It had listed more than 440 non-core assets it will consider offloading from its portfolio of federally owned buildings. The agency estimates these assets amount to 80 million square feet of mostly office space, which would require more than $8 billion to revitalize.
The next day, the GSA removed the list. According to Government Executive, the GSA clarified that a list posted earlier this week of hundreds of federal buildings that it will consider selling, which the agency has since taken down from its website, “will be republished in the near future after we evaluate this initial input and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed.”
GSA faces a multi-billion-dollar maintenance backlog for buildings it owns. The average GSA-owned building is over 50 years old. The agency said selling or disposing of these properties could save the federal government up to $430 million in operating costs each year.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.?
