GSA will likely shrink federal office space post-COVID

The General Services Administration is likely to reduce the amount of office space the federal government uses over the next few years.

GSA’s administrator recently told a Congressional committee that 40% of its leases will expire over the next four years. That provides a chance to shift tenant agencies to properties the government owns, but maintenance is a key challenge.

Agencies could save $2 billion annually if they take advantage of the opportunity to move. GSA has saved $4.5 billion in lease costs to date through office consolidation, but many federal buildings have fallen into disrepair because of a lack of consistent funding for maintenance.

More than half of federal buildings in GSA’s portfolio are over 50 years old, and more than a quarter of them are over 75 years old. GSA needs to ensure designs of new federal buildings can be resilient to the impacts of climate change, one congressperson pointed out.