Several prominent Philadelphia buildings could go up for sale as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government's footprint.
Four federal properties in the city accounting for nearly 1.4M SF were “designated for disposal” on a list of “non-core” real estate assets published by the U.S. General Services Administration on Tuesday.
The list was removed from the website as of Wednesday morning. That webpage now reads “Non-core property list (Coming soon).”
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As of Tuesday, when the list was published, the largest Philly building on the list was the roughly 534K SF Mid-Atlantic Social Security Center at 300 Spring Garden St. in Northern Liberties. The hulking eight-floor structure also has a surface parking lot.
The U.S. Custom House, a nearly 437K SF structure which takes up a full city block at the corner of Chestnut and Second Streets, was also on the list. It was completed in 1934 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The Veterans Administration Center at 5000 Wissahickon Ave. hit the disposal list as well. The more than 418K SF space is located across the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority tracks from the Drexel University College of Medicine campus in East Falls.
A fourth Philadelphia asset on the list was identified only as “Federal Building 05,” and is labeled as having 0 SF.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, a GSA spokesperson said it received an “overwhelming amount of interest” after publishing the list, and that it plans to republish it soon.
It also clarified that a building's inclusion on the list doesn't mean it is immediately for sale, but that the government will consider “compelling offers.”
“We anticipate the list will be republished in the near future after we evaluate this initial input and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed,” the spokesperson said.
The deleted list also included three properties in Northeast Pennsylvania.
The 234K SF Wilkes-Barre Federal Building at 1150 E. Mountain Drive was targeted for sale. It appears to have been an administrative center for the Social Security Administration. A 3,400 SF maintenance building in the city is also being sold.
Another SSA building at 88 S. Laurel St. in nearby Hazleton was up for disposal as well. It was listed at 8,000 SF.
The effort to shrink the federal government’s office footprint is being led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
DOGE has an online database of leases it is moving to terminate. Six Philadelphia buildings are on that list, none of which are more than 50K SF.
A seventh building, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission office at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard, will also see its lease axed by the agency, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.
The GSA has estimated it could save as much as $430M in annual operating costs by shedding properties across the country.
A timeline for the disposal of the Philadelphia-area properties wasn’t immediately clear.
According to its website, the GSA’s Public Building Service plans to engage “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.”
UPDATE, MARCH 5, 9:05 A.M. ET: This story was updated after the GSA removed the list of “non-core” properties from its website.
UPDATE, MARCH 5, 3:10 P.M. ET: This story was updated after the GSA provided a statement about the list being removed.
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