Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Trump administration prepares to sell off hundreds of federal buildings
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is considering selling off hundreds of “non-core” federal properties, according to the General Services Administration.
“GSA’s decisive action to dispose of non-core assets leverages the private sector, drives improvements for our agency customers, and best serves local communities,” the agency said in a news release, claiming that it could potentially save “more than $430 million in annual operating costs.”
A list of 440 “non-core” properties initially posted to the GSA website included the headquarters of the FBI; the departments of Justice, Veterans Affairs, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development; Federal Trade Commission, GSA’s own headquarters, and the Old Post Office – where the Trump Organization had a 60-year lease until it sold it to the Waldorf Astoria hotel in 2022. Several of the buildings listed include staff from multiple agencies, such as the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, the biggest federal government building in the Southeast.
Later Tuesday, however, the list was scaled back to 320 properties, with all DC-based properties removed.
CNN has reached out to the GSA for comment on the removal of the properties from the list.
GSA said in the release that most of the buildings flagged consist primarily of office space and that selling them will “ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space.”
The release said the agency has identified certain “core” assets “that are needed for critical government operations,” including courthouses and facilities key to national defense and law enforcement, which “will be retained for long-term needs.” However, multiple courthouses, including the US Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, are on the list.
Though many of the properties initially listed are in the Washington, DC, metro area, the list includes buildings across the country, from Alaska to Florida.
The move comes as the Trump administration has ordered federal workers to return to their offices, marking an end to Covid-era rules allowing more flexibility. GSA on Tuesday did not specify where federal workers will go if their buildings are disposed of.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been working with GSA on a plan to shed federal offices and collocate agencies, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. The goal is to have federal agencies share office space by connecting those that need workspace with those that have extra room.
A recently launched program called “space match” will allow agency heads throughout the government to fill out a Google form detailing how much space they need for their operations. The program is intended to offset the loss of workspace, but the source cautioned that closing these buildings could be expensive.
“The cost to close buildings and relocate is pretty high — you have to clean out the old building and all of its furniture, etc., which for a 500,000 (square foot) building is not cheap,” the source said. GSA will then have to find a place for displaced employees to go, which could mean purchasing new information technology infrastructure or possibly furniture.
The potential closure of the buildings echoes promises made during President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, where he vowed to move tens of thousands of federal jobs out of Washington, DC, and into “places filled with patriots who love America.”
And Trump pushed to relocate federal agencies in Washington during his first term, when the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management was moved from the capital to Grand Junction, Colorado.
As part of a plan to conduct mass layoffs across the federal government, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management have asked federal agencies for an outline of “a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations going forward.”
OMB and OPM have asked for agencies to submit proposals for office relocations away from the DC metro area and plans to reduce costs and improve efficiency through technology. Those are due no later than April 14 and should be implemented by September 30, CNN previously reported.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/federal-properties-selling-list-gsa/index.html
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
FBI, DOJ Headquarters May Be Sold Off As Part Of Government Property Purge
The headquarters of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation may be sold off as part of a massive purge of 'nonessential' government properties.
According to a website for the General Services Administration - the agency which manages the government's office space, a listing of "buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations" now includes the DOJ and FBI headquarters, along with the federal courthouse in Los Angeles, according to The Independent.
Other buildings on the list include the Office of Personnel Management’s Theodore Roosevelt Building HQ, the building used to house offices of the United States Trade Representative, the headquarters of the American Red Cross, and the Old Post Office building, according to the report.
The GSA has also designated its own headquarters - along with the headquarters of the Department of Labor, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Transportation as unnecessary and potentially for sale, the report continues.
Outside of Washington, GSA has also marked for potential sale the headquarters of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn, Maryland, the headquarters of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Rockville, Maryland, and buildings used by the Food and Drug Administration in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland.
The Trump administration also wants to dispose of the John F Kennedy Federal Building and the Thomas P O’Neill Federal Building, both located in Boston, and the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center in Georgia, the largest single federal building in the southeast which currently houses the Federal Railroad Administration. Federal courthouses in Florida, Georgia, and Indiana would also be up for sale under the GSA proposal. -Independent
The sales would mean that the vast majority of cabinet departments and other agencies would lose their headquarters buildings, in what the GSA says could potentially save more than $430 million in annual operating costs.
In a statement posted to its website, the GSA said that its Public Buildings Service was behind the plan to sell off most of the cabinet department headquarters buildings.
"Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce. We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues. GSA’s decisive action to dispose of non-core assets leverages the private sector, drives improvements for our agency customers, and best serves local communities," reads the statement, which adds that the Public Buildings Service was exploring "creative solutions, including sale-lease backs, ground leases and other forms of public/private partnerships to drive the full optimization of our space while delivering our federal employees the high quality work environments they need to fulfill their missions."
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-doj-headquarters-may-be-sold-part-government-property-purge
HUD Terminates Obama-Era Housing Rule
by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
An Obama-era housing rule that was terminated by the first Trump administration and revived by the Biden administration has again been canceled. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said the regulation has led to excessive bureaucracy and created affordability challenges.
The agency said it will terminate the Biden-era 2021 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, “cutting costly red tape imposed on localities and returning decision-making power to local and state governments,” in a Feb. 26 statement.
“The Biden-era AFFH rule was, in effect, a ‘zoning tax,’ which fueled an increase in the cost and a decrease in the supply of affordable housing due to restrictions on local land,” the HUD stated.
The AFFH rule, introduced by the Obama administration in 2015, implemented reporting requirements for local and state governments as well as public housing agencies that received federal funds from the HUD.
For instance, it required local officials to provide answers to 92 questions on topics such as disparities in housing opportunities, according to a commentary by The Heritage Foundation. Local officials had to report data on issues such as environmental health hazards, which had little to do with affordable housing. Besides that, HUD fund recipients had to ensure that their policies and practices did not promote racial segregation.
“[The AFFH rule was] designed to give unelected, anonymous bureaucrats in Washington the power to pick and choose who your new next-door neighbor will be,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote in a 2016 op-ed.
“If they don’t believe your neighborhood is ‘diverse’ enough, they will seize control of local zoning decisions—choosing what should be built, where, and who should pay for it—in order to make your neighborhood look more like they want it to.”
In 2020, the Trump administration abolished the AFFH rule, and then-HUD Secretary Ben Carson called the requirements “excessive federal overreach.” The rule proved to be “complicated, costly, and ineffective,” the HUD said at the time.
In 2021, the Biden administration restored the main provisions of the AFFH rule.
With the AFFH rule terminated again, localities will “no longer be required to complete onerous paperwork and drain their budgets to comply with the extreme and restrictive demands made up by the federal government,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said.
“This action also returns decisions on zoning, home building, transportation, and more to local leaders,” he said.
A locality only has to certify that it has “affirmatively furthered fair housing” in accordance with the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the agency said. The FHA prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status, or disability.
“Local and state governments understand the needs of their communities much better than bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. Terminating this rule restores trust in local communities and property owners, while protecting America’s suburbs and neighborhood integrity,” Turner said.
Housing Crisis
Following the HUD announcement, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) issued a statement condemning the decision.
They accused Turner of abandoning the HUD’s “legal obligation to eliminate housing discrimination in the United States.”
“At a time when America is experiencing a full-blown housing crisis and record levels of housing discrimination complaints, this outright assault on civil rights takes us back to the days when the federal government rubber stamped segregation and discrimination,” they alleged.
“He is eliminating a key tool that makes housing more affordable and accessible to everyday people, including people of color, older Americans, veterans, people with disabilities, families with children, and so many others.”
Turner was confirmed to the HUD post by the Senate on Feb. 5 by a vote of 55–44.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Turner discussed his commitment to reduce housing development costs, saying that homelessness in the United States reached an all-time high last year.
“That’s a national embarrassment and something that cannot continue,” Turner said. “We have a housing crisis in our country, where American people and families are struggling every day.”
The recent decision comes after President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on his first day in office about the cost-of-living crisis facing Americans, in which he highlighted the ongoing housing challenge.
Many Americans are unable to buy homes because of high prices, “in part due to regulatory requirements that alone account for 25 percent of the cost of constructing a new home,” the memorandum states while calling on agencies to take appropriate action to lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hud-terminates-obama-era-housing-rule
Monday, March 3, 2025
SEC says Trump admin to end building leases for Los Angeles, Philadelphia regional offices
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission informed staff on Monday the Trump administration is preparing to terminate building leases for its regional offices in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, according to an email seen by Reuters.
In an email sent to staff, the SEC emphasized efforts to end those leases by the General Services Administration (GSA), which is generally charged with managing U.S. government office space, is not directly tied to any staff reorganizations or layoffs within the SEC.
The GSA is also intending to terminate the lease of the SEC's Chicago office, but may not be able to do so without incurring significant financial penalties, the email said. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-sec-says-trump-administration-215959872.html
Sunday, March 2, 2025
NYC’s Roosevelt Hotel may fetch $1B in sale after migrants move out: sources
The city’s announcement that it would move migrants out of the Roosevelt Hotel by June made the precious East Midtown site Topic No.1 among commercial developers.
The property’s owner, the Pakistan government’s Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), wants to sell it for what sources said could be $1 billion.
A developer could tear down the antiquated hotel to build a skyscraper of up to 1.8 million square feet on the roughly 42,000 square-foot parcel, sources said. A project so large would need to exploit recent area rezoning which raised maximum FAR (floor-to-area ratio) from 15 to 30, available only if a developer provided transit and public-space improvements and amenities subject to city and MTA review.
PIA’s sale agent, JLL, has yet to issue a formal solicitation, which will likely happen in the spring. However, market sources told Realty Check that “informal conversations of interest” have taken place with developers including Tishman Speyer, Related Companies, SL Green and Vornado.
A new tower might combine offices, a hotel and retail. A buyer would need to pay a substantial termination fee to the Hotel Trades Council/Local 6 union even if the project didn’t include a hotel, as per its contract with Roosevelt’s owners.
JLL has represented PIA since early last year, but its role was limited as long as the city’s $220 million Roosevelt lease remained in effect. Now that the city has exercised an option to end the lease with four months’ notice, the hotel site has become the hottest potato in the Manhattan shoot-for-the-sky building scene.
PIA is eager to unload the site to help alleviate the airline’s and the government’s cash-crunch. The Jerusalem Post, which monitors Pakistani finances closely, last week called the lease termination “a major financial setback” for PIA. The Islamabad government is under pressure to meet terms of a $7 billion IMF bailout agreement.
“Any development plan would have a lot of moving parts,” one investment-sale specialist noted “A buyer has to make a deal with the union. Their proposal has to go through ULURP. They need to find an anchor tenant. You’re looking at a three-to-five-year process.”
Reopening the Roosevelt as a hotel short-term wasn’t likely, an industry source said – “It was not in great shape before the migrants came and God knows what it’s like now.” Tens of thousands of migrants, not all of them legal and some with criminal records, have lived there for nearly two years.
Reps for SL Green, Vornado, Tishman Speyer and Related either declined to comment or didn’t get back to us. Premier investment-sale wizard Darcy (“Skyscraper Queen”) Stacom, who just launched new capital markets advisory firm StacomSilverstein with Wendy Silverstein, declined to comment on the site’s potential value.
City Planning Commissioner Daniel Garodnick, who was instrumental in rezoning East Midtown to allow larger buildings, couldn’t immediately be reached.
JLL New York-area president Peter Riguardi wouldn’t comment except to say, “We are very impressed with the sophisticated developers showing interest.”
Two new leases have taken up 19,000 more square feet at 5 Penn Plaza. They follow 70,000 square feet of leases in January.
The nonprofit NY E-Health Collaborative, which works with the state Department of Health, took 15,000 square feet on the twelfth floor. Tech firm Dynatrace took 4,000 square feet on the 24th floor.
The 650,000 square foot building on Eighth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th streets, owned by investor Stephen Haymes, recently completed a major upgrading and is nearly 90% leased. JLL’s Mitch Konsker, leader of the landlord’s agency team, said, “5 Penn has been powerfully repositioned to meet modern-office demand.”
Since the sale of East Hampton’s historic Hedges Inn to the owners of the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, South Fork-watchers have wondered y how Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall would brand the restaurant space previously leased to Zero Bond club king Scott Sartiano.
My colleague Jennifer Keil reported last month they plan an all-day restaurant that will “partner with local farmers and feature down-home events like bingo and trivia nights.”
We happened to dine at the Colony’s restaurant, Swifty’s, when we were in Palm Beach last week. Although it’s none of our business, it struck us that its seasonal, modern-American menu would be a logical fit for the indoor-outdoor Hedges setting. Well-heeled, well-behaved customers at Swifty’s (and at its former Lexington Avenue location) won’t likely create a noise problem like the alleged one that led to Sartiano’s ouster.
And “down-home events like bingo and trivia nights” are already in full swing at Swifty’s in Palm Beach.
There’s finally some good news at the Trump Organization’s beleaguered 40 Wall Street, where office tenants have dwindled and a 20,000 square-foot, former Duane Reade has yet to be replaced.
Nero Food Lab, an Italian restaurant and gourmet food shop and bakery, just opened on the ground floor, more than five years since the 17,000 square-foot venue was first announced in January of 2020.
The deal appeared dead when the pandemic struck. But the handsome eatery bowed for a “soft opening” two weeks ago and plans a full-scale launch soon. There’s also a smaller Nero at Trump Tower.
Florida’s brewing condo crisis as property values drop in once-coveted retirement haven
A slow-motion crisis is unfolding in Florida’s condo market, threatening to upend the state’s image as a haven for retirees and reasonably priced beach living.
Owners of the state’s older condos are bracing for steep special assessments, while racing to sell their homes and receiving only tepid buyer response.
Amid a property market that’s still vibrant for nearly every other segment, Florida’s aging condominiums are losing value. And nearly 1,400 buildings are now blacklisted from receiving mortgage financing, making those apartments an even-tougher sell.
At the heart of this turmoil is a basic reality: Florida’s aging condo buildings desperately need repairs, and state officials are forcing them to assess (and pay for) those long-overdue upgrades.
Under a law enacted after the tragic 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, which saw 98 people lose their lives, condo boards may no longer defer major structural improvements to another day — or decade. The “Building Safety Act” required every condo tower in Florida aged 30 years or older to complete a structural integrity study by the end of 2024, to get a full grasp of what problems need fixing.
This year, the tab for those repairs comes due. Condo boards must now set aside funds to fix the issues found in those studies — from concrete restoration to balcony overhauls. And the assessments on individual condo owners are looking both pricey and unsettling.
“You’re going to see a massive reduction in the value of these buildings based on these giant special assessments and the work that has to be done,” said Orest Tomaselli, CEO of Strategic Inspections, which advises condo boards nationally on how to shore up their reserves.
In Florida buildings he’s worked with, Tomaselli has seen special assessments as low as $250 per month, to a property that levied $2,500 per month, per unit owner, for a three-year stretch.
“There are real people in these units that may be displaced,” Tomaselli said of the assessments, “that may lose their nest egg and may lose tremendous amounts of value in their units.”
At Aventura’s Mediterranean Village, a waterfront condo complex with a marina out front, unit owners were hit with six-figure special assessments last year, some as high as $400,000, according to published reports.
At Miami’s Cricket Club, a 50-year-old waterfront tower burdened with $134,000 special assessments per condo, 23 of the building’s 217 condos are currently for sale, according to brokerage Compass. In a Miami market where the median condo price was $445,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, condos at the Cricket Club are seeking buyers with prices as low as $220,000 for a 1,950-square-foot two-bedroom on the 19th floor. (The owner initially sought $330,000).
Meanwhile, at Summit Towers in Hollywood, a building-wide special assessment of $56 million led to the ousting of four board members in a January election, in favor of new members who promised “a more moderate approach” to building up reserves, said Amy Greenberg, a broker and resident of the building with several listings there.
“A lot of people moved here to be able to retire and live their life here, and they’re on fixed incomes,” said Kathleen DiBona, a 50-year resident of Hollywood who serves as president of the Hollywood Beach Civic Association. “They’re having a difficult time being able to manage all that’s coming and hitting them.”
Many owners whom DiBona knows in Hollywood, a city dotted with older towers, are seeking to off-load units with little success. Others, she said, have dropped insurance coverage for their condos so they can manage to pay their special assessments.
Failure to pay these assessments will impact more than just the individual owners who can’t afford them. If 15% of unit owners in a building default, the entire property could become ineligible for mortgage financing, according to Tomaselli of Strategic Inspections.
“What happens if nobody can get a loan to buy a unit in your building?” says Joseph Hernandez, a Miami-based partner in the real estate group of law firm Bilzin Sumberg. “It essentially makes the units in your building unsaleable and it makes the value of those units go down.
“We may see a lot of condo projects go into distress.”
Some could already be getting close. In February, Fannie Mae, the national mortgage finance agency, updated its running list of “unavailable” US condo buildings, meaning they are no longer eligible for mortgage financing. Of the 4,885 buildings currently on the list, 29% are located in Florida, the highest share of any state. The top reason: “critical repairs or deferred maintenance,” according to a person familiar with the roster.
One newly flagged example is 4000 Island Blvd., a 32-story condominium in Aventura’s exclusive Williams Island, which was built in 1985 and added to Fannie Mae’s no-lending list in January. At least 24 unit owners are trying to sell, according to Compass. Barry Sytner, the condo board’s president, called the building’s inclusion on Fannie Mae’s list “incorrect,” noting that the property just secured a bank loan commitment to cover expenses tied to its 40-year inspection.
There are roughly 1.1 million condo units in Florida that are 30 years old or more, and subject to the new law, according to the Florida Policy Project. Of those, 58% are concentrated along the Southwest and Southeast coastal counties, in places like Tampa, Clearwater and the greater Miami metro area, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County.
That means the law’s reach extends to more than half of all condo owners in Florida’s famed retirement enclaves. According to brokerage ISG World, apartments that are over 30 years old accounted for 86% of all Southeast Florida condo listings in the fourth quarter of 2024 — a total of 17,198 properties for sale across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Yet even as thousands of newcomers flock to the region, these abundant and discounted units are languishing on the market, weighed down by the threat of special assessments and uncertainty over looming repair costs.
“The fear of the unknown is scaring the hell out of potential buyers,” said Craig Studnicky, ISG’s chief executive officer.
“Remember that show, ‘Let’s Make a Deal?’ ” Studnicky said. “They may get a special assessment and it could be quite modest, which means you just made one hell of a deal. But what if you’re wrong, and the special assessment is gargantuan? Not only is the special assessment big, but the scope of construction is big, and you’re going to be living in a construction site for the next two years.”
The full extent of special assessments is still an open question for many Florida properties. While the state deadline for condos to submit their structural integrity studies was on Dec. 31, only 39% of buildings in Southeast Florida have done so, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
Some of that’s because engineers were simply not available, amid a statewide rush to get these studies completed. Others could be gambling that enforcement won’t be robust or swift, said Peter Zalewski, a Miami-based broker, analyst and condo investment consultant.
“You have buildings that are shopping for studies, because maybe they’re coming in too high, and maybe they can find someone who can lowball it,” Zalewski said.
“People are figuring out what to do,” Zalewski added. “They think there will be a silver bullet, some kind of cure in the upcoming Florida legislative session” amid outcry from condo owners
The state legislature, which convenes its 2025 session March 4, has no plans to bail out condos or offer reprieve from the deadlines to fund repairs, Florida legislative leaders said at a condo conference last month held by Miami Realtors, according to Homes.com.
Lawmakers, however, might consider financing solutions to help condos cover the cost of structural studies and maintenance, including allowing reserve funds they set aside to be invested.
Despite some maintenance challenges, Florida’s older condos still reflect the only affordable opportunity at homeownership for those who can’t swing the price tags of Miami’s new crop of ultra-luxury developments, says Scott Diffenderfer, a Miami-Beach-based broker for Compass who specializes in sales of older units.
He says he’s pretty upfront with potential buyers these days about the scope and costs of repair that some of his listings will undergo.
Brokers view the new regulations and mandatory repairs as a necessary correction to Florida’s once-lax condo standards, Diffenderfer explained.
Previously, buyers had little insight into a building’s true condition — much like purchasing a used car without a Carfax report.
Now, with stricter enforcement requiring proper reserves and full disclosure of maintenance history, brokers say the condo market could become more transparent and ultimately unlock greater value for owners
“For probably 75% of the buildings in South Florida, when the dust settles, people are going to say, ‘You know what? That was painful. But look at these buildings!’ ” Studnicky said. “They’re in great shape.”
Oshrat Carmiel is the publisher of Highest & Best, a newsletter on South Florida real estate and wealth migration, and a former real estate reporter for Bloomberg News.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/01/real-estate/inside-floridas-brewing-condo-crisis/
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