These Boston Federal Buildings Are in the GSA’s Crosshairs

A handful of Massachusetts properties are potentially on the federal government’s chopping block, including a pair of buildings in Boston.

Nine properties in the state were identified in the General Services Administration’s list of “non-core” assets published this week, WBUR News reported. The 443-property inventory posting appeared to signal the government’s interest in considering a sale of the properties, though the list was taken down from the agency’s website by Wednesday morning and replaced with a “coming soon” message.

The two biggest assets identified in Massachusetts were both in Boston, including the 838,000-square-foot JFK Federal Building in the city’s downtown. The property touches multiple departments and politicians, containing offices for the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the IRS and local offices Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.

The other building mentioned in Boston proper was the 672,000-square-foot Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Federal Building. Named for the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, it holds offices for numerous agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Peace Corps. and the Boston Passport Agency.

Beyond Boston, there were three other properties identified that span at least 100,000 square feet: the John A. Volpe Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, the IRS Center in Andover and the Fredrick C. Murphy National Archives and Records Administration facility in Waltham.

The remaining properties were the Phillip J. Philbin Federal Office Building in Fitchburg, the Silvio O. Conte Federal Building in Pittsfield, a Social Security Administration field office in Fall River and the US Custom House in New Bedford, which the National Park Service cites as the oldest continuously operating custom house in the country.

The national inventory posted by the GSA spans nearly 80 million square feet of rentable space across the country. The agency projects more than $430 million of annual operating cost savings if the entire inventory is sold.

Michael Peters of the Public Buildings Service previously said the buildings aren’t “for sale by any means,” but that the government would be open to offers for the properties.

It’s unclear when a revised list will be made public.

— Holden Walter-Warner