The federal government selected Cushman & Wakefield as the brokerage team tasked with selling seven warehouses that were once slated to become detention facilities.
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The Cushman team was picked months after the Department of Homeland Security announced it wanted to sell or give away seven of the 11 warehouses it spent more than $1B buying over the course of a year.
The vacant properties are being sold individually, according to an online listing that highlights their 38-foot average clear heights and expansive truck courts.
The government paid $706.5M for the seven properties totaling 5.4M SF, an analysis from Bisnow found. Bids for the portfolio are expected to value the assets at around $600M, according to Real Estate Alert, which first reported the assignment.
Cushman & Wakefield, the DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Wednesday. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said that “announcements will be made at the appropriate time.”
DHS said in June it was planning to dispose of the seven facilities, which were part of a largely failed effort by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to expand federal immigration facilities to include detention centers housed in converted warehouses.
The agency under Noem began acquiring warehouses in 2025, drawing criticism from rights groups and many of the communities where the facilities were planned. The plan to convert the properties was put on hold in April, after Noem was replaced by former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the department’s new secretary.
ICE paid an 11% to 13% premium for the properties compared to their market price, according to a CoStar News analysis from March.
Mullin had been skeptical of the plan to convert the warehouses, The New York Times reported in April, and an inspector general probe was opened into the plan to examine whether it complied with federal standards in May, before the conversion proposal was eventually shelved.
The proposal added attention to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions after taking office, drawing criticism at the same time that protests over ICE operations across the country were increasing.
Pushback in several cities successfully scuttled planned sales and turned local governments against development plans for the detention facilities.
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