{"id":1004508804,"date":"2021-02-01T10:40:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internal.cpexecutive.com\/?p=1004507971"},"modified":"2021-05-20T16:39:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:39:39","slug":"slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Going for Federal Property Disposition Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lew Sichelman<\/p><\/div>\n

The dozen underutilized or no longer needed federal properties identified for disposal more than a year ago by Uncle Sam have yet to be brought to market.<\/p>\n

The plan now is to put them up for sale some time this year, but not as originally planned. Now the idea is to sell all 12 properties as a single portfolio rather than selling each one individually.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis broader approach will help ensure the sale or sales will be completed within the statutory deadline\u201d set by the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016, the Public Buildings Reform Board says.<\/p>\n

The PBRB also will entertain offers for individual properties. But \u201cgiven the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the commercial real estate market,\u201d it decided to try to sell them in bulk in order to meet its lawful requirements.<\/p>\n

The properties that must be sold by the end of the year range from a 14-acre Nike missile site in Gaithersburg, Md., a few miles outside of Washington, D.C., to an expansive 170-acre Jobs Corps campus in Sacramento. A full list of the 12 properties can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The PBRB was created under FASTA to reform the federal property disposal process, expedite the sale of unneeded and\/or underutilized real estate and maximize value for the government. It has been working with the General Services Administration to \u201cprepare the properties for sale\u201d and will soon begin searching for brokerage and advisory services to help in the disposition effort.<\/p>\n

But the Government Accountability Office continues to find fault with how the board determines which properties are ripe for turning over to private developers who would reinvigorate them into apartments, office space and other potential uses.<\/p>\n

Last February, (I wrote a column for CPE<\/em><\/a>) reporting that the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the General Services Administration\u2019s database of structures and land misidentified numerous properties.<\/p>\n

The publically available database of federal real estate can be accessed by anyone for any reason, such as finding property to be used for a cell tower. But the GSA found numerous issues with the inventory, including the fact that 67 percent of the addresses were either incomplete or incorrectly formatted.<\/p>\n

Now, the watchdog agency has come down on the process again, reporting that the five-member review board failed to fully detail the process used to evaluate the first of 44 high-value properties recommended for disposal.<\/p>\n

For example, the panel\u2019s rationale for why some properties were chosen while others weren\u2019t was \u201cvague or incomplete,\u201d the GAO said in its Jan. 28 report. Documenting the board\u2019s decision-making process would \u201chelp stakeholders, including Congress, understand the rationales for and financial implications of disposing of federal real property,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The watchdog agency also found fault with FASTA, saying the law\u2019s impact on such long-term challenges as preparing properties for sale \u201cis unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n

FASTA was enacted to decrease the federal government\u2019s costs by reducing its inventory of federal civilian real property.<\/p>\n

Here, the agency noted that while the law created a dedicated funding source to cover such costs as relocating personnel, accessing those funds is \u201cnot automatic and must go through the annual appropriations process\u201d\u2014a process that \u201crarely coincides\u201d with the timing for selling the properties.<\/p>\n

The PBRB has said it plans to develop more and better documentation in future disposal decisions. It\u2019s next submission is required by law by Dec. 31, when the total value of the assets recommended for disposal must not exceed a total market value of $2.5 billion.<\/p>\n

The board says it expects to identify dozens of assets for disposal as well as potentially multiple opportunities for agencies to reduce and consolidate their real estate portfolio. But the second round\u2019s success, it warns, will be contingent upon the availability of funds appropriated to and deposited into the Asset Proceeds and Space Management Fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 12 underutilized federal assets identified for sale more than a year ago have yet to be brought to market, explains columnist Lew Sichelman. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":1004517770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004508804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSlow Going for Federal Property Disposition Effort - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Slow Going for Federal Property Disposition Effort\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 12 underutilized federal assets identified for sale more than a year ago have yet to be brought to market, explains columnist Lew Sichelman.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-01T18:40:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T00:39:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2021\/04\/Lew-Photo-002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"267\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lew Sichelman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/slow-going-for-federal-property-disposition-effort\/\",\"name\":\"Slow Going for Federal Property Disposition Effort - 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