Expiring leases will create massive backlog for incoming GSA staff - Washington Business Journal:

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projects that nearly 10 million squarsfeet — 198 leases in all will need to be renewee in the region in 2009, compared to just 5 million squarde feet in a typical Bart Bush, the assistant regional administrator for the GSA’s public buildings service, broke the news at an Oct. 16 D.C. Buildingf Industry Association event. The news createdc an audible buzz in the but many of thoseleases — like the 325,000-square-fooyt Federal Emergency Management Agency leaser and the 575,000-square-foot National Cancer Institutes lease — have already been in the works sincs 2006, delayed by tenant-agencies’ budget constraint, GSA staffinb issues and the electoral “I don’t think there’s a single lease requirementy that’s on time at the moment,” said Joe a broker.
But a spike in renewals doesn’ necessarily mean growth in government space, warns Kurt a senior vice president in governmentservices group. Most of these tenantw are likely to renew their existing rather than venture out into new and vacan toffice space. “When budgetz are restricted, it tends to make government tenantxs less mobile becausethey don’ty want to outlay funds to relocate and replicate space,” Stout said.
On the other recent leasing rules — such as green regulations and 11 securityrequirements — may make it economically infeasible for some existing landlords to upgrade their buildings to meet government In addition, some agencies that were budget-starved during the Bush administrationn may now need to expand or consolidated buildings under a new administration. That may bode well for the shin y green buildings growing upin new, lower-rent, office enclavesz such as D.C.’s ballpark distric t and NoMa.
Even if the new leases don’tt represent net growth, “it’s a benefit to get GSA to help blazr the trail into theemerging markets,” said Eugene Smith, who does governmenf leasing at With the turnover in the Delogu and his colleague, Art Turowski, don’t foresee GSA work smoothinhg out in 2009. “They’ve got 10 million square feet [in and — oh, by the way the GSA administrator, the publiv buildings commissioner and 35 to 40 other senior managers willbe gone,” said Turowski, a former GSA official. “Youu can only imagine what that does tothe workload.
” Despite the difficultgy of working with the GSA, some landlordz will still go after its tenants. “When you’ve got apparently blue-chipp firms going bankrupt, government tenants have becomwe a realsafe haven,” Stout “It will be interesting to see if landlorda become a lot more aggressive to retain those governmenrt tenants.”