NJ federal buildings in Trumps cross-hairs
Nonmilitary office stock reportedly being targeted
By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... President Donald Trump's administration is reprotedly looking at selling off as much as two-thirds of teh federal government's nonmilitary office stock, and that could impact the commercial office space market in New Jersey.
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In the Garden State, the federal government - specifically the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles much of the federal government's real estate - wons 51 buildings that cover 1.34 million square feet, and leases 87 buildings that total 1.72 million square feet , according to David Marroni, director of the infrastructure team at the federal Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that scrutinizes federal spending.
..... Much of that includes local post offices, federal courthouses, and offices for various federal agencies, including the FBI.
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"The federal government could better manage its real property portfolio by effectively disposing of unneeded buildings," Marroni said in an emailed statement. "Federal agencies struggle with excess and underutilized space, which costs millions of dollars."
..... The GSA estimates that it owns over 363 million square feet of space in nearly 8,400 separate buildings in more than 2,200 communities across the country.
..... Overall, the federal government owns just 3.6% of the land in New Jersey, including land owned by the department of Defense, according to a 2020 report form the Congressional Research Service, compared, for instance, to 80% of the land in Nevada, 63% in Utah, 62% in Idaho and 61% in Alaska.
..... The federal Bureau of and Management owns the most property among federal agencies nationwide, with 244 million acres, but none in New Jersey. The forest Service, which owns 193 million acres across the country, also has none in New Jersey.
..... The Fish and Wildlife Service owns 74,000 acres in New jersey, the Department of Defense wons 62,000 acres and the Nations Park Service owns 36,000 acres.
..... Compare that to Alaska, where the Bureau of Land Management owns 71 million acres, the Forest Service owns 22 million. Fish and wildlife owns 76 million, and the Nation la Park Service owns 52 million.
..... The Department of Defense owns the most property in California, with 1.1 million acres.
..... National parks in New Jersey include the Paterson Great Falls, the New Jersey Pinelands and the Morristown National Historical Park, which commemorates the sites of General Washington and the continental army's winter encampment of December 1779 to June 1780.
Federal return to office mandate
..... Federal buildings are concentrated in three New Jersey sites, according to public records: Newark, Trenton and Camden.
..... There's also the Robert A Roe Federal Office Building in Paterson.
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Trump's recent mandate hat all federal workers return to the office five days a week will be a "good start" in determining how much federal office space is actually needed, said Dan Kennedy, the former president of NAIOP, New Jersey's commercial real estate trade group. Representatives for the GSA and White House did not return emails seeking comment.
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But GSA Commissioner of Public Buildings Elliot Doomes said in a July 2024 statement under then-President Joe Biden that the agency was striving to avoid "billions in unnecessary real estate expenditures."
..... The year before, in November 2023, the GSA said it would "right-size" the federal real estate footprint by shaving off 3.5 million square feet of property. that's part of a plan to reduce "reliance on costly leases and moving underutilized and under performing assets out of the federal portfolio."
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Trump's effort to unload federal office space - much of it underused and in Washington - was first reported by the Wall Street Journal
Future for these properties?
.... while adding federal office space back onto local New Jersey property tax rolls could provide a revenue boost for local governments, experts raise cautionary flags over expectations that the private sector will jump right in and scoop these federal properties up.
.... "We need to call into question any assumption that the private sector will simply purchase these poorly maintained, high-risk assets - without commitments for permit coordination and other assistance - and bring these properties back to life and onto the tax rolls," said Kennedy.
..... There need to be "advanced coordination" of regional and state government. zoning and redevelop,et," Kennedy said, so that the proprieties could be reconfigured for such futures sues as office space, housing or mixed-use development.
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The Wall Street Journal reported on anxiety among D.C. developers that a sudden glut in real estate because of off-loaded federal land in the city could drag down property values throughout the nation's capital.