The federal building in Downtown Tucson may soon be up for sale by the Trump administration. Photo by Paul Ingram | TucsonSentinel.com
The federal building in Downtown Tucson may soon be up for sale, with the General Services Administration — headed by associates of Elon Musk — listing hundreds of government buildings across the country for “disposal” on Tuesday.
But early Wednesday, the federal agency pulled down the entire list, replacing it with a “coming soon” notice.
The agency included the building at 300 W. Congress St. among more than 440 others in a list posted online Tuesday, with officials announcing that GSA was taking “decisive action to dispose of non-core assets.”
Tuesday evening, GSA dropped about 120 properties from the list. The Downtown Tucson facility remained on the list.
Wednesday morning, the federal agency removed all properties on the list, adding “coming soon” to the web page. GSA did not provide any explanation for the changes, and kept the original press release about the list of 440 published on its site.
The Tucson Federal Building houses numerous government agencies, including the area offices of the U.S. Marshals Service, Forest Service, Small Business Administration, IRS, Department of Labor, and the local staff of the GSA.
The building has nearly 116,000 square feet of office space, according to the GSA’s listing.
Also within its walls at the corner of West Congress Street and Granada Avenue are the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, Federal Protective Service, and USDA Perishable Agricultural and Commodities Act offices.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review operates immigration courts, including at the Tucson facility.
Properties on the “non-core assets” list may be sold to private companies and then leased back, the GSA said.
The Tucson Federal Building was constructed in 1974.
Thus far, it is the only government structure in Arizona targeted to be sold off. A parking lot in Phoenix is also on the GSA “disposal” list, which in its original form included properties across 47 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Wired reported last month that a GSA document noted the agency intends to slash the “size of the owned real estate footprint by 50 percent and the number of buildings by 70 percent. Reductions will be focused on the non-core general office space of the portfolio which can be replaced as needed in the private leased market. Moving forward, all non-core buildings will be disposed of and their tenants will be transitioned into leases.”
The agency — now staffed at its top levels by associates of Elon Musk — said Tuesday that “federally owned assets in GSA’s portfolio that are not core to government operations primarily consist of office space. GSA currently owns and maintains over 440 non-core assets comprising almost 80 million rentable square feet across the nation and representing over $8.3 billion in recapitalization needs. 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.”
Musk is the de facto (but legally unacknowledged) head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” declared by President Donald Trump. The effort is called ‘DOGE’ by the Trump White House and Musk in a reference to a joke cryptocurrency. The GSA’s leaders now include X/Twitter staffer Nicole Hollander and former Tesla staffer Thomas Shedd, the newly installed director of the Technology Transformation Services within GSA, Wired reported. The outlet also reported that a “number of young engineers with ties to Musk’s companies and little to no government experience have been given access to a number of government agencies, including GSA.”
“GSA will consider non-core assets for divestment from government ownership in an orderly fashion to ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space, or the significant maintenance costs associated with long-term building ownership — potentially saving more than $430 million in annual operating costs,” officials at the agency said in Tuesday’s online statement.
“As part of our strategy to optimize the GSA portfolio, PBS will be engaging in market research and customer agency feedback regarding the potential disposition strategies for non-core assets, and will consider current use, occupancy, cost of agency relocation, and local market conditions when assessing disposition. PBS welcomes 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,” the government agency said.
GSA officials didn’t explain how paying rent on offices for the hundreds of agencies now occupying buildings owned by the government — including covering maintenance and other costs borne by tenants, along with profit margins for private owners — would save money.
From Wired:
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The Trump administration has also touted a return-to-office requirement as a key part of its plan—something made more difficult if government employees don’t have an office to return to.