In the 2015 tax year the District of Columbia will implement a new assessment method that will substantially increase real estate taxes for most office properties. This method relies on comparable sales instead of evaluating net…
Author: Kurt Stout
Sales Market Insights – Spring 2014
GSAXCHANGE, the investment sales arm of Colliers Government Solutions, has published its Spring 2014 “Government-Leased Assets” report, which includes an overview of sales activity and trends in the federal sector. Driven by the lack of product…
Polar Vortex Not Chilling WDC Core Office Sales
Our investment sales team was especially prolific last week, issuing two new reports on the Washington, DC area property market. The 2013 Year End Washington, DC Capital Markets Report noted that many primary and secondary markets around the…
Alternative Approaches to Funding for Federal Real Property
A recent bounce in GSA’s funds from Congress has modestly improved the agency’s ability to reduce the federal footprint and shift more toward owned space, as we discussed earlier this month. But the slight budget relief…
Better Buildings Bill Update
Thirty-two U.S. Senators stayed up all night on March 10, speaking non-stop to stir Congressional colleagues into action on climate change. Overnight talking points emphasized state-by-state economic damage such as crop losses from California droughts, coastal…
The Bounceback: GSA’s Budget Returns to “Normal” (and what that means for lessors)
We’ve often said on this blog that you need only look at GSA’s budget as the bellwether for leasing demand. In recent years we’ve noted that budget reductions imposed by Congress have put GSA in a…
The Pile-Up
Several times on this blog I’ve observed that GSA has been engaged in a spirited game of can-kicking when it comes to leasing. Much of this has been due to intense budget distress from record deficits, rising…
National Targeting Center to Consolidate
Two days after planting a car bomb in Times Square, Faisal Shahzad boarded a plane for Dubai at JFK International Airport. But a routine post-boarding check discovered Shahzad on the no-fly list, and US Customs and…
Energy Efficiency Initiative Finds Broad Support
Even before the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, Congressional Republicans and Democrats sought common ground over energy efficiency. Most of the bills and other efforts have stalled or struck out, including the broadly supported but so…
A LEED System for Tenants: LEED-CI
When the new Department of the Interior (DOI) headquarters opened in 1936, employees enjoyed the latest in building amenities and technologies: a gymnasium, movable steel office partitions, a soda fountain, and the first air conditioning system…