‘Government, Too, Has Trouble Selling Buildings’
28th April 2011
See, here’s where Donald Trump might be an asset.
For more than six years Akridge, a developer in Washington, had its eye on a 10-story office building in Bethesda, Md., which had been vacant since the National Institutes of Health moved out in 2002.
But the federal government did not put the building on the market until November 2009. By then, of course, the real estate market had slumped. Akridge and its partner, Rockwood Capital, a real estate investment fund in White Plains, finally bought the building last October, paying $12.5 million, less than the $14 million asking price.
What? The Federal government lose money? But that’s What It Does!
Yet various obstacles make it difficult for the government to unload buildings it no longer wants.
For one thing they must first be offered to other federal, state and local agencies. Officials also have to ascertain if the building has a community use — say, for a homeless shelter.
I am not making this up.
April 28th, 2011 at 13:57
Some years back, the Pentagon closed George Air Force Base near Victorville, CA. One of the many obstacles to selling the property was that it first had to be evaluated for housing for the “homeless”. The place is located in the high desert which is not particularly attractive to the homeless (or anyone else). But after careful evaluation, the State of Kalifornia determined that the military quarters did not meet the minimum specifications for housing the homeless. (Presumably, they weren’t as good as a cardboard box with a jar to pee in.)