Los Angeles Leads Nation in Federal Office Lease Cancelations

In the wake of the federal government’s sweeping office lease terminations in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, Los Angeles leads the country in federal office spaces lost to canceled leases.

Lease agreements for more than 70,000 square feet of spaces in L.A. County leased by the General Services Administration, which manages workspaces for government agencies, have been canceled this year alone, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported, pointing to data from Avison Young’s new Federal Property Pulse database.

Outside of Washington, D.C., California boasts the most cancelations of any state. L.A. is the largest contributor to that shortfall, accounting for 21 percent of the 337,785 square feet canceled. Agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Natural Resources Conservation Service have had the fate of their outposts in areas like Wilmington, Rowland Heights, Monterey Park, Brentwood, Downtown L.A. and Mid-City thrown into limbo.

“The federal government was one of the most stable tenants in the world,” Grant Hayes, manager of market intelligence for U.S. multifamily for Avison Young, told the Business Journal. “Obviously, that has changed with [Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency].”

It’s not just L.A. County that is seeing lease cancelations in the region. Two office leases totaling more than 30,000 square feet were also canceled in Camarillo in Ventura County, just north of the L.A. County border. The Inland Empire lost 21,000 square feet of offices, and an additional 26,000 square feet in Orange County were cut.

The nation’s capital has far and away seen the most federal lease terminations, with nearly 1.5 million square feet of office space canceled, according to Avison Young’s dashboard. Greater Los Angeles has seen less than 150,000 square feet canceled.

Though DOGE became a lightning rod of criticism in the spring for its many lease terminations, the General Services Administration has steadily been paring back its office holdings over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2024, there was “a significant decline in net new demand from GSA procurements,” Hayes said.

Still, the trend over the past decade would be a drop in the bucket by comparison to this year’s cancelations. In the past six months, nearly 6 million square feet of office leases have been canceled nationwide, far outpacing the average annual loss of 1 million square feet per year since 2016.

— Chris Malone Méndez