Trump could sell off around 450 gov’t buildings, including FBI headquarters

The headquarters of agencies like the FBI could be on the chopping block after a list proposing the sale of nearly 450 federal buildings to slash government waste was compiled.

As the Department of Government Efficiency’s savings climbed toward hundreds of billions of dollars, leaving an increasing number of swamp creatures crying, wasteful programs and bloated workforces weren’t the only targets to trim spending. Having already canceled leases on scores of vacant or underutilized buildings, the General Services Administration (GSA) cleared the way for an estimated $430 million in annual savings with a list of “non-core assets” around the country.

Initially including headquarters for the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI and Veterans Administration, 443 federal buildings have been listed by the agency’s Public Building Service and have since been whittled down to 320, removing all facilities in Washington, D.C. for the time being.

“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,” a statement from the agency explained.

“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” continued the GSA, which had originally included its own building on the list. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues.”

Regarding the changes, the list noted, “We will update it as assessments progress.”

In one example of the effort, Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian noted on Tuesday on X, “The @USGSA is modernizing & rightsizing the federal real estate portfolio for the American people. Since Jan 20, we’ve listed 1.4M sf of surplus property, expecting $185M in sales & $29M in capex savings. e.g., Selling Ogden Forest Service Bldg for $3.6M, saving $23M in liabilities.”

The @USGSA is modernizing & rightsizing the federal real estate portfolio for the American people. Since Jan 20, we’ve listed 1.4M sf of surplus property, expecting $185M in sales & $294M in capex savings. e.g., Selling Ogden Forest Service Bldg for $3.6M, saving $23M in… pic.twitter.com/kaQTps0ywy

— Stephen Ehikian (@USGSAStephenE) March 4, 2025

Other facilities that were listed, as the Associated Press reported that GSA regional managers were informed of a target goal of 300 lease terminations per day, included courthouses, skyscrapers, the building that had replaced the one destroyed by the Oklahoma City bombing and ones “bearing the names of civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta and Rosa Parks in Detroit, and the Montgomery, Alabama bus station that was pivotal in the civil rights movement and now serves as the Freedom Rides Museum.”

Along with buildings, the GSA has instructed agencies to justify their costliest consulting contracts. Falling short of that, they were expected to prepare to cancel the arrangements which, according to the memo, projected over $65 billion in collective federal fees in years to come for the most expensive firms like IBM, Deloitte, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Guidehouse.

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

Latest posts by Kevin Haggerty (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.