Trump administration retracts list of federal buildings it could sell
The trump management recently released a list of hundreds of federal buildings across the United States that it considered selling as part of its strategy to reduce the size of the federal government. However,this list was retracted less than a day later. The General Services Administration initially published details of 433 “non-core” properties earmarked for potential sale, but the webpage now states that a new list will be available soon.
Most of the buildings listed where located in the Washington, D.C. area, including significant agency headquarters for entities such as the Justice Department and the FBI. Other states like Michigan and illinois were also included, with several properties in Chicago. Critics, including Rep. Mike Quigley, expressed concerns about the indiscriminate nature of the list, arguing that it lacked thoughtful consideration and analysis of the implications for federal operations.
The retraction of the sales list coincided with a broader trend of federal workers returning to office work, amidst challenges posed by decreased commercial property values in major cities, likely influenced by the pandemic’s impact on business activities. Reports indicated that many federal workers were returning to offices without adequate resources, highlighting the need for proper planning in such transitions.
Trump administration retracts list of hundreds of federal buildings across the country it could sell
President Donald Trump’s administration released, then retracted, a list of federal buildings across the United States that could be put up for sale as it looks to fulfill the campaign promise of downsizing the federal government.
The General Services Administration released a list of hundreds of properties it was considering selling but retracted it less than a day later. The webpage, which previously contained a “non-core” property list of 433 buildings, now says a list will be “coming soon.”
“We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,” the page now reads.
The now-defunct list has hundreds of federal government buildings that the Trump administration appears to be open to selling. Most of the federal buildings listed were in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area including large buildings and agency headquarters of the Justice Department, FBI, and Agriculture Department.
Michigan was the next state with the most listed buildings, with 26. The country’s third-largest city, Chicago, had 11 buildings on the list, two of which were in its downtown “Loop.”
“It makes sense to right-size on occasion, but this just isn’t the way to do it — sort of indiscriminately, without any thought, any analysis, any study,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), whose district encompasses parts of Chicago. “I think it’s going to be a tragic lesson in civics for the American people, a reminder that federal workers do important things.”
In New York City, some properties on the list included buildings used by the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, which overlooks the U.N. Headquarters, and two downtown buildings that house offices for federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York and the IRS.
It is unclear what the market would be to buy these buildings. Many U.S. cities have struggled to get their business centers back to prepandemic levels of activity, and the value of commercial office spaces appears to have decreased.
In St. Louis, for example, one building was sold for $3.6 million in 2024 after being sold for $205 million in 2006. The office tower’s value over those 18 years dropped from about $140 to $2.50 on a cost-per-square-foot basis, according to an analysis from CoStar.
The list of properties to be sold also comes after Trump signed an executive order requiring all federal workers to return to the office five days a week, regardless of any telework agreements or whether those agreements were in place before the pandemic.
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Many federal agencies downsized their physical offices during the pandemic, and some workers have reported returning to the office without a proper desk or workspace as a result.
“There was very little prep and planning and it was messy with equipment,” a Health and Human Services staffer told CNN, noting that there were reports of Wi-Fi and electricity not working.
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