HUD Plans To Relocate, Dispose Of Longtime D.C. Headquarters

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is searching for a new headquarters, and the Trump administration is looking to offload the 1.1M SF brutalist building in southwest D.C. that it has called home since 1968.

The General Services Administration, in a joint press release with HUD, announced Thursday it is putting the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building up for “accelerated disposition” as it looks to “engage the market” and explore relocation options.

The release said that the D.C. metro area will be a “top priority” as HUD considers where it will relocate.

“We’re committed to rightsizing government operations and ensuring our facilities support a culture of optimal performance and exceptional service as we collaborate with our partners at GSA to deliver results for the American people,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in the release.

Turner last month said on Fox News he sees the HUD headquarters as the “ugliest building in D.C.” The building has a distinctive brutalist façade, designed by architect Marcel Breuer. 

The 57-year-old building faces $500M in deferred maintenance needed upgrades, the release said, and it costs taxpayers $56M in annual rent and operations expenses.

The property is also severely underutilized, according to the release. With every staff member present at the location, it is only half full.

The Trump administration has been making deep cuts to the federal workforce across agencies. At HUD, the administration is expected to cut the agency's workforce in half — from about 8,300 employees to just over 4,000, The Washington Post reported in February. CNN’s federal overhaul tracker indicates that 780 HUD employees have been fired so far.

The workforce cuts are coinciding with the administration's effort to shrink its real estate portfolio.

HUD’s building was on a list of 443 “noncore” properties that the GSA announced were up for “accelerated disposition” at the beginning of March. The agency took down that list less than 24 hours after it was posted and is now updating the page piecemeal.

“I fully support Secretary Turner’s desire to exit a building with significant deferred liabilities in favor of a more appropriately sized, better equipped, and maintained space that will enable the HUD workforce to fulfill its important mission,” GSA’s Public Buildings Service Acting Commissioner Michael Peters said in the release. 

The Weaver building sits in D.C.’s southwest federal cluster, an area with a concentration of big, aging government buildings that have been eyed for redevelopment. 

The relatively low utilization of the office buildings combined with the lack of other uses has left the area with little foot traffic. But its proximity to the National Mall and waterfront mixed-use hub The Wharf have made local leaders and real estate experts see it as a prime candidate for large-scale, mixed-use redevelopment efforts.

Transwestern published a study in September that identified the HUD building as one of several in the cluster that could be redeveloped. 

Lucy Kitchin, who leads Tranwestern's Government Services Advisory Group and authored the report, told Bisnow Thursday she sees the HUD building as an opportunity for a conversion to residential. 

The building's layout, with four wings jutting out to the corners of the block and curved façades lining the street-level plazas, differentiates it from other rectangle-shaped government buildings in the area. 

“That probably has to do with the configuration of floor plates,” she said of the conversion opportunity. “They may have access to the amount of natural light needed for that type of conversion, especially when you compare that floor configuration to some of these very large, square floor plates with a lot of interior space.” 

The Public Buildings Reform Board, a body Congress created in 2016 to advise the government on property disposition, said at its January meeting that it was heavily focused on the Southwest cluster as an opportunity to dispose of buildings and tee up development opportunities. 

At the meeting, the board enlisted an architecture firm to lay out a potential vision for a mixed-use neighborhood redevelopment of the 250-acre corridor, including the HUD building. 

“We know that many underutilized federal spaces have enormous potential to be transformed into productive uses that adds to the economic vibrancy of the nation’s capital,” D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert said in a statement to Bisnow. “We continue to work with our federal partners on a strategy that maximizes the benefit of these projects, and look forward to engaging with GSA on the HUD Headquarters.” 

UPDATE, APRIL 17, 3:50 P.M. ET: This story has been updated with a statement from Deputy Mayor Nina Albert.