Texas Office Buildings Targeted in Trump’s Downsizing Plan

Three Houston office buildings are on the chopping block in the Trump administration’s plans to offload federally owned property.

Twenty-four of the 440 buildings the General Services Administration marked for closure, citing high maintenance costs and underutilization, are in Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The targeted Houston properties are the Mickey Leland Federal Building, at 1919 Smith Street, which is home to a passport office; Alliance Tower, at 8701 South Gessner Road, which houses State Department and IRS offices; and the historic U.S. Custom House at 701 San Jacinto Street, which occupies a full downtown block and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The agency’s “non-core” assets cover nearly 80 million rentable square feet nationwide, with recapitalization needs exceeding $8.3 billion. Years of funding shortfalls have left many of these buildings obsolete and unsuitable for federal employees, the GSA said in a statement on its website.

It is estimated that offloading those properties could save taxpayers more than $430 million annually in operating costs. Disposing of them “leverages the private sector, drives improvements for our agency customers, and best serves local communities,” the statement said.

The GSA posted a list of the targeted buildings on Tuesday, but the list had disappeared from the agency’s site by Wednesday morning. The Associated Press later reported that the number of properties up for sale had been adjusted to 320.

The deleted list included buildings in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Del Rio, Farmers Branch and the Border Patrol sector headquarters in Marfa and McAllen. Among the most prominent nationwide properties considered for sale was the federal building in Oklahoma City, built after the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing, as well as multiple courthouses, the FBI headquarters, and the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.

Houston’s U.S. Custom House, completed in 1911, originally housed the federal district court and a post office before those functions were relocated in 1962. The 22-story Mickey Leland Building was constructed in 1983, and the 12-story Alliance Tower was completed in 1985.

Houston’s office vacancy rate is approaching 26 percent, largely due to older buildings losing leases as companies prefer newer properties with better amenities.

—Rachel Stone