Four Philadelphia properties could be sold off by the federal government, according to an initial list of “non-core” assets published by the General Services Administration this week.
The four Philly buildings listed in the 443-property inventory span nearly 1.4 million square feet, Bisnow reported. The properties were on a “designated for disposal” list, signaling the government’s desire to offload them; the list was removed from the agency’s website by Wednesday morning, replaced with a “coming soon” message.
The largest of the Philadelphia properties on the initial list was the Mid-Atlantic Social Security Center at 300 Spring Garden Street in the Northern Liberties neighborhood. As the name suggests, the 534,000-square-foot property is a social security office.
Ranking second by size was the U.S. Custom House at 200 Chestnut Street. The 437,000-square-foot building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The Veterans Administration Center at 5000 Wissahickon Avenue spans 418,000 square feet. Its inclusion on the list jibes with reports that Donald Trump’s administration is planning to cut 80,000 jobs within the VA.
Finally, there’s the mysterious “Federal Building 05,” which must be one of the smallest properties in the world, as it supposedly occupies 0 square feet. The lack of an address on the initial inventory clouds the secretive property, though one local real estate writer believes the building to be part of the aforementioned VA center.
Another three properties in Northeast Philadelphia also appeared on the inventory, including a 234,000-square-foot building in Wilkes-Barre.
The national inventory posted by the GSA earlier this week spans nearly 80 million square feet of rentable space across the country. The agency forecasts more than $430 million of annual operating cost savings if the entire inventory is offloaded.
Michael Peters of the Public Buildings Service has said the buildings aren’t “for sale by any means,” but the government would be open to compelling offers for the properties.
It’s unclear when a revised list will be made public, other than “soon.”
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