For those of you who have recently awakened from a coma, here is a news alert: President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate change agreement. Predictably, there has been a tsunami of commentary on…
Category: Leasing Policy
GSA Leases Appear to be Growing Longer
The GSA property market has been characterized by a relative scarcity of long-term leases. This unwillingness of federal agencies to commit to long-term contracts is due to budget distress, mission uncertainty and challenges complying with OMB mandates to reconfigure…
Will Foreign Ownership Receive Greater Scrutiny?
Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released its report titled GSA Should Inform Tenant Agencies When Leasing High-Security Space From Foreign Owners. The title pretty well summarizes the report’s conclusion – that GSA should determine if its…
Is the 100-Year Floodplain Now Obsolete?
The water is rising. So scientists working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported. Regardless of one’s point of view about ultimate causes, they note that the eastern and southern coastlines of the…
The Supreme Court and the Rule of Two
In mid-June of this year, the US Supreme Court issued a rare unanimous decision directed at the Department of Veterans Affairs—but that may affect all federal agencies in time as they engage with private contractors for…
New Sustainability Rules Impacting Investors & Managers Leasing to the Federal Government
The following is a guest post written by Mark Miller, the head of Colliers’ national Energy & Sustainability team. To learn more about Colliers’ Energy and Sustainability services, click here. The Federal Government is taking aggressive steps to…
Reining in Lease Extensions: A New GAO Report Promises More Oversight on Federal Leases
The federal government spends too much money, and it doesn’t keep tabs on what it’s spending money on. That’s the constant complaint, especially from critics in an election cycle—but it’s also a refrain that’s coming from the…
National Broker Contract, Round 3
The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued its RFP for the third generation of its broker and leasing support services contract – formerly the National Broker Contract (NBC), now named GSA Leasing Support Services (GLS). The…
The Key Sustainable Products Initiative
Is your bathroom tissue squeezably soft? Does your soap leave your hands germ-free? Advertisers lie awake at night worrying about whether consumers are worrying sufficiently about such things. And as for the federal government—well, officials there…
CPI Has Declined, and So Has Your Rent
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently posted the January 2015 Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures and the results show that the measure declined 0.1% from a year ago*. This would be of little consequence to most non-economists but federal landlords…