Federal government could sell its largest office buildings in Atlanta

In total, some 3.2 million square feet of mostly office space in Georgia was identified for potential “divestment,” GSA said. Hundreds of properties were identified across the U.S., with nearly a third of them in the Washington, D.C., area, including the headquarters for the Department of Justice and GSA itself, according to the Washington Post.

Analysis of properties across the U.S. is still underway, GSA said, and the agency is considering different types of dispositions. Among them: direct sales, sale-lease-back arrangements that would see the government remain a tenant and potentially redevelopment.

The list of “noncore” properties also could change, GSA said.

“GSA is committed to being a smart steward of taxpayer dollars by cutting unneeded space and reducing costs,” an agency spokesperson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Noncore assets … often do not provide federal employees the high quality work environments they need to fulfill their missions.”

The Sam Nunn and King buildings are part of downtown Atlanta’s “Government Walk” district next to the Five Points MARTA Station, which acts as one of the largest clusters of federal office space outside of Washington, D.C. The Sam Nunn complex is a regional hub for the Environmental Protection Agency and encompasses more than 1.5 million square feet of space — more floor space than Atlanta’s tallest tower, Bank of America Plaza.

As the Nunn and King buildings’ futures are not yet known, it’s unclear if agencies within them could eventually relocate.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

AJ Robinson, president and CEO of Central Atlanta Progress, downtown’s main civic organization, he said the bulk of those buildings' value is its government workforce as a tenant.

“Without a government tenant, the buildings will be worth a whole lot less when they go to sell them,” he said. “So I’m curious if this is an attempt to just sell the building and stay in as a tenant. Or if they’re going to leave the building, they’re not going to get very much money for them.”

Completed in 1997, the Sam Nunn center is built around the former main building of Rich’s department store, which opened in 1924. The King Federal Building is a refurbished post office that was built in 1933.

When Atlanta faces a record-amount of empty and unwanted office space, Robinson said it’ll be a challenge to find tenants for those buildings on the private market.

The buildings are well-located, adjacent to MARTA’s busiest station and on the cusp of two of the city’s biggest redevelopment projects — the $5 billion Centennial Yards and South Downtown, a revitalization some of the city’s oldest commercial buildings just south of Five Points.

“The buildings need immense work,” said Jon Birdsong, a partner in South Downtown.

The Nunn center endured a rodent infestation during the pandemic. GSA inked a $3.2 million contract in 2022 to rid the campus of unwanted critters, the AJC reported at the time. At the time, GSA said the problem stemmed from a “confluence of several factors — including construction in the area and conditions adjacent to the facility.”

The contract also included campus cleaning.

Agencies are still using the buildings but not to the extent they were before the pandemic, though Trump’s return to office mandate has pushed more back to the center.

“They haven’t been occupied in five years,” Birdsong said of the campus. The amount of rat infestation has been communicated to us, which is concerning as neighbors.”

Birdsong said the campus “needs focused and committed TLC.”

The Metro Atlanta Chamber said the two downtown buildings have “significant potential,” and if redeveloped as something other than federal offices “could present an opportunity to further activate and reimagine Downtown Atlanta.”

Critical vs. noncore

GSA’s Public Buildings Service compiled the list of buildings its looking to off-load.

It said it identified scores of federally owned assets it considered “needed for critical government operations,” including courthouses, land ports of entry and facilities needed for national defense and law enforcement.

“These core assets are intrinsically significant to the mission of the federal government and will be retained for long-term needs,” the GSA said in a statement.

More than 440 “noncore assets” comprising more than 80 million square feet were placed on the chopping block, which GSA says represents about $8.3 billion in asset value and $430 million in annual operating and maintenance costs. Sam Nunn center was the fourth largest of those buildings.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” GSA said. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these long-standing issues.”

Other Georgia buildings on the list include Atlanta’s Internal Revenue Service building, Chamblee’s IRS annex and federal buildings or courthouses in Athens, Dublin, Rome, Thomasville, Savannah, Statesboro and Valdosta.

GSA said it will consider direct sales, sale-lease back agreements, ground leases and other forms of public-private partnerships in its attempts to shed the buildings.

The federal workforce landscape has drastically changed since Trump returned to the Oval Office. Spearheaded by Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency has scrutinized the size of federal departments and government office leases. The amount of money DOGE has actually saved is far less than advertised, according to several reports.

Many agencies — such as the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have already undergone layoffs.