As organizations nationwide look to reduce their facilities footprint by getting rid of underused or unused buildings, the nation’s federal government also is looking closely at its stock of aging buildings to determine which ones might be candidates for adaptive reuse. Now a new report is offering additional specific targets for the administration’s ongoing efforts to dispose of its unwanted facilities.
The headquarters for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Voice of America (VOA) and parts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are among the latest federal buildings that a small, independent agency is urging the administration to sell.
A new report from the Public Buildings Reform Board recommends that the General Services Administration (GSA) put the DOE’s James Forrestal Building, VOA’s Wilbur Cohen federal building and nine other federal properties up for sale or disposal.
The board is also looking to shutter the headquarters of the agriculture department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Coast Guard’s New England headquarters in Boston and an office building for federal law enforcement personnel in Houston.
Headquarters for the Labor Department, GSA, the agriculture department, the FBI, the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Aviation Administration are listed as candidates for analysis for the board’s next round of disposal recommendations.
The report also recommends that the government get rid of a federal building in Atlanta, according to WSB. The report recommends closing the Peachtree Summit Federal Building because it is being underutilized and would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fully modernize. The board estimates that selling or consolidating the properties could save taxpayers $5.4 billion and generate an estimated $346 million in sales proceeds.
According to the new report, the building requires over $255 million in repairs and upgrades, including HVAC system upgrades, window replacement, electrical wiring upgrades, and renovations to the public areas.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.?
