The Federal Trade Commission is looking to downsize one of its D.C. office leases by more than 25%.
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The General Services Administration is asking Congress to approve a lease prospectus for the FTC to replace its lease at the Constitution Center building near L'Enfant Plaza with up to 179K SF. The lease expires on Feb. 29, 2027.
The new lease would shed 64K SF of the FTC's existing 243K SF at Constitution Center, reducing the total square footage allocated per employee from 278 SF to 200 SF. The request allows the agency to either stay in place or relocate to a different building in D.C.
"This prospectus aims to increase efficiency and reduce the office space of this requirement, while meeting FTC's mission and maintaining its overall effectiveness for the American taxpayer," a GSA spokesperson wrote in an email to Bisnow.
The property at 400 Seventh St. SW serves as a satellite office for the FTC, which is headquartered about a half-mile away at 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
FTC attorneys, economists and support personnel work out of the satellite office, which houses several branches of the FTC: the Bureau of Competition, the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Bureau of Economics, the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Executive Director, according to the prospectus.
Constitution Center has been home to the FTC since 2014. The 1.4M SF building spans a full city block and is one of the most valuable buildings in the District. MetLife has owned the property since acquiring it in 2012 for $734M.
Constitution Center is in a federal office-heavy portion of the city, sitting across the street from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The property’s other federal tenants include the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the GSA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, according to its website.
The proposal, posted to the agency’s lease prospectus page, was signed by newly appointed Public Buildings Service Commissioner Elliot Doomes and General Services Administrator Robin Carnahan on Oct. 24. Because it is a budget request, the prospectus will have to be cleared by House and Senate committees.
