GSA Pulls 135K SF IRS Office From DOGE Termination List, Landlord Says
The U.S. General Services Administration has backed off of plans to exit a purpose-built office building in the Nashville suburbs owned by Global Net Lease.
The REIT announced Wednesday that it had received written notice from the GSA revoking a previously issued notice that the agency overseeing the federal government’s office footprint would terminate its lease at the 135K SF office building built specifically for the Internal Revenue Service.
GNL said the lease, which is reportedly set to run until 2032 and generates roughly $4.6M annually, remained in force at the five-story office building at 127 International Drive in the Nashville suburb of Franklin.
“Global Net Lease thanks the GSA for being a valued partner throughout this process,” the company said in a statement. “GNL looks forward to continuing the strong relationship for many years to come.”
The property, built in 2012, was sold to a subsidiary of New York-based GNL for a local record $43.3M in 2014, the Nashville Business Journal reported. The IRS is the sole tenant.
GNL listed the building for sale with JLL as a plug-and-play headquarters opportunity after it received the GSA termination notice, The Real Deal reported.
It’s unclear if the property is still for sale following the government's decision to remain in place. GNL didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment Thursday morning.
The notice sent to GNL from the GSA saying that it was planning to exercise termination rights in its lease was part of the broader push by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut government spending.
It was one of nearly 800 properties owned or leased by the government initially targeted by DOGE to be phased out of the federal portfolio. That list, which originally included the headquarters for agencies like the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, was quickly amended. By mid-March, it included 657 leases totaling 8M SF.
DOGE’s website had claimed that terminating the lease for the Nashville office would lead to just under $32M in total savings for the federal government.
The GSA has rescinded at least 135 lease termination notices totaling some 2.2M SF. A spokesperson for the agency told Bisnow last month that more notices were likely to be recalled as the federal government continued to assess its office footprint. Commercial real estate professionals trying to navigate the government’s efforts have described them as “pure chaos.”
Federal workers were called back to the office five days a week after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, which itself generated chaos as tens of thousands of workers returned to offices that weren’t prepared to support them.
The government is searching for a solution to its office utilization predicament, with workers being pulled back into buildings that their agencies are trying to walk away from.
GSA recently launched a pilot program that will make government offices interagency, welcoming employees from across the workforce to buildings that had previously been designated solely for one use.
The pilot program includes two separate networks of space that are set to launch later this month, with one space-sharing initiative focused on Chicago and the other covering agencies across multiple states.
