Weeks after announcing plans to cancel a major federal lease, the U.S. General Services Administration has reversed course, leaving a 135,000-square-foot IRS facility in suburban Nashville on firm footing.
Global Net Lease, the New York-based REIT that owns the property at 127 International Drive in Franklin, received notice from the GSA revoking its earlier decision to terminate the lease.
The reversal restores what had been one of the largest government leasebacks in Middle Tennessee and nullifies one of the highest-profile cuts initiated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The five-story building was constructed for the IRS in 2012 and has served as a regional headquarters for the agency. DOGE flagged the lease for termination in March as part of a broader push to eliminate what it described as underutilized federal real estate. The lease, valued at $4.6 million annually, was expected to save the federal government nearly $32 million, according to DOGE’s website. Global Net Lease then listed it for sale in early April.
The lease is “in full force and effect,” Global Net Lease said, though no explanation has been provided by the General Services Administration or DOGE.
A spokesperson for the landlord declined to comment on why the termination notice was revoked, but said IRS operations never ceased at the location, and there was no interruption in rent.
The about-face raises questions about the authority and decision-making behind DOGE, an initiative created via executive order and not yet ratified by Congress.
The agency has claimed credit for terminating more than 700 leases nationwide, but real estate owners have increasingly pushed back, some through legal channels, arguing the cancellations were rushed, lacked due process and risked destabilizing local office markets.
The Franklin building had been considered a local economic anchor, and its lease termination sparked concerns about long-term vacancies in a market still grappling with elevated office supply. Nashville’s Franklin submarket had a vacancy rate of 24 percent in 2023, one of the highest in the region, according to CommercialCafe.
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