A huge office building that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is vacating will soon hit the market, teeing up a major redevelopment opportunity just off the National Mall.
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The General Services Administration plans to sell Agriculture South, a 2.2M SF office building constructed in the early 1930s that spans two blocks on Independence Avenue, it announced Wednesday.
The USDA said in July it would vacate the building, which had a daily occupancy of 1,900 employees, despite having a potential capacity of 6,000. The department said at the time it would transfer the building to the GSA, which would consider whether to use the building for another agency or sell it.
By selling it, the GSA says it will save $1.6B in taxpayer money by not having to address the building's backlog of needed repairs. GSA Administrator Edward Forst said the sale would advance President Donald Trump's goal of "reducing the bloated federal real estate portfolio and turning the fiscal drain of empty space into economic opportunity."
The release says the building coming up for sale will "catalyze economic development in Southwest DC." The building is 85% vacant today, according to the release.
The building could be a candidate for residential conversion, as it is made up of seven wings connected by six interior courtyards. It is one of a cluster of large government buildings in Southwest D.C. that local and federal officials have been eyeing for a large-scale development to create a new mixed-use district just south of the museums, monuments and green spaces on the mall.
Other buildings in the area the government plans to sell are the Department of Energy's 1.7M SF James V. Forrestal Building, the 1.2M SF Wilbur J. Cohen Building, the GSA’s 845K SF Regional Office Building, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's 1.1M SF former headquarters.
Some of those properties have been on the GSA's disposition list for more than a year, but no deals have been announced.
The USDA's move is also slated to cost the city around 2,500 jobs, as the agency has been moving employees from this building and two others to other parts of the country. HUD relocated last year to Alexandria, Virginia.
“This is a long overdue move to protect American taxpayer dollars from being wasted on expensive real estate inside the Washington, D.C. area when our government should be closer to the farmers and ranchers we serve,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.
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