Feds seek $8B in sale of some real estate assets

The nation’s largest property owner will sell off a number of assets nationally in the coming year, CNN reported. The federal government will consolidate its real estate holdings and sell off any excess, in order to save an estimated $8 billion.

Many of the 1.1 million plots of land and buildings owned by the government are underused, outdated or abandoned, CNN said. President Barack Obama has now made the consolidation of federal real estate holdings a priority.

For example, the government recently sold a 27,000-square-foot office building in Nome, Alaska for $1.68 million and a 1,425-acre site in Maine was sold at auction for $750,000.

In the spaces the government is keeping, agencies will “reduce office space, encourage wider adoption of telework, provide alternate workspace configurations, reduce operating costs, and consolidate data centers,” according to Danny Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget. And that could have the unintended effect of increasing productivity, according to previous reports. [CNN]