If you think getting an immigration bill, say, or healthcare reform through a bitterly divided Congress is hard, try an annual budget. In mid-September, Congress, having been unable to agree on that budget, passed what is…
Author: Kurt Stout
Rolling Termination Rights Now Extend to AAAP Program
As of last month, the Automated Advanced Acquisition Program (AAAP) still allowed GSA and interested landlords to enter into leases of 5 years, 10 years or 5 years with a fixed-price five-year renewal option. However, this…
District of Columbia: LEEDing by Example
Recently adopted standards in the District of Columbia now require new buildings to meet LEED standards. That is, they must meet the Green Building Council’s energy-efficient, environmentally friendly requirements of building design and construction, operation and…
The Trouble with Rising U.S. Debt
The federal debt held by the public in the second quarter of 2014 was $12.57 trillion. That equates to 72.6% of GDP, down slightly from the post-WWII peak of 74.0% that was recorded in the first quarter of this…
Funding Controversy Leaves DHS’s Consolidation Plan in Doubt
St. Elizabeths Hospital, perhaps best known as the psychiatric facility in which the poet Ezra Pound was held for thirteen years after having been convicted of treason, and where would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley has been…
How to Tell the King Snakes from the Coral Snakes: Due Diligence Tips for GSA-Leased Property Investors
You’ve inspected the building and it appears sound. You’ve interviewed the tenants and they seem happy. You’ve toured the market and it triggers no alarms. You’ve done all of your normal due diligence, so you buy. Then, later, when…
Colliers Releases 2Q’14 North American Office Report
Colliers today released its mid-year report profiling activity in North American office markets. The results are mostly bullish: Following the negative weather impact on most economic metrics earlier in the year, the U.S. economy rebounded well…
Lease Patterns, and What They Tell Us
Looking at remaining term of federal leases relative to building age, an interesting pattern emerges: the leases appear in “waves”. The scattergraph above shows office buildings that are at least 85% leased by federal tenants. We’ve plotted every building…
Top GSA Property Owners (2014 Edition)
Last year we published our inaugural list of the ten largest owners of GSA-leased properties. In this article we chronicle the top 10 list again, along with a few new honorable mentions. The ranking looks a lot like last…
The Long-Term Trend of Short-Term Leased Space
UPDATE: We updated this article the day after first publishing it in order to tune up our stats. The new graph (above) tracks the percentage of leases that have less than 3 years of remaining lease term…