• It is said that the federal government is moving for sale Hundreds of desktop buildings you own and then rented them again. Although the deal can provide a short -term cash pump, it is a long -term losing for taxpayers, as experts told luck.

Trump administration pays Privatization “Anything can Reasonable privatization,“In the words Timing The CEO and responsible for the White House, Elon Musk. Part of this privatization now includes a knitted tactic by private stocks: the sale of federally owned buildings, then renting them to the government.

The Public Services Department was published last month, then it was quickly removed, a list of 500 federal buildings that are considered “non -basic assets”. This list included J. Edgar Hoover building, which includes the FBI; Building the administration of old warriors, and buildings in Chicago and Boston, Senate offices in the Senate, Wireless I mentioned. Currently, GSA lists Twenty buildings Available for sale, with a promise to “spread additional assets regularly”. Meanwhile, GSA officials go forward with plans to sell hundreds of public buildings quietly to private companies, Washington Post I mentioned– Then turn and push to rent them.

Experts said to luck.

“It is great that you get this large money in advance when selling the building, but if you are going to rent the building for a while you lost control of real estate,” said Kevan Ventura, a manager of the real estate practice of Goldberg Kun.

“What does that mean after 10 years from now when you need space and no longer control it anymore? Is the rental costs eventually exceeding what you achieved in profit?”

Timing is also a question: Commercial real estate values ​​are still depressed from prenatal levels, which means that the government may not get the complete fundamental value of many historical buildings.

“Several buildings have been sold for deep discounts in recent months, especially in the Washington, DC, [that] “The angel of corporate offices may be more frequency at the present time to buy offices real estate without knowing a place or if the values ​​in the offices market have stopped,” said Ermgarde Jabir, Moody’s Analytics, to Moody’s Analytics. luck In an email.

She added that the matter is more than that, if the large parcels that choose real estate to the market come at the same time, they risk increasing the nullity of the values ​​of each building.

In a statement, a GSA spokesman said, “There was no consideration in the sale of real estate with an opponent or outside the regular operation of the GSA.”

The statement said that the agency “is taking measures to meet President Donald J

Sell ​​now, pay later?

In the best scenario of cases, professionals from real estate said that selling unused buildings that are not accredited would liberate the government from paying unexpected maintenance costs for real estate aging, and replacing them with one that can be predicted.

In the long run, such a deal will abandon the assets owned by the American public that can be used to generate revenue on the road.

In the worst scenario of cases, the Federalists put themselves to repeat the error made by the city of Chicago in the great recession when he sold rights Parking meters For private sector investors in a move that was a “disaster”, according to three experts who have put forward, unlucky, as an example of how this type of deal failed.

In the sale of 2008, Chicago received less than $ 1.2 billion for 75 years of revenue from parking meters. Investors raised the parking prices shortly after the deal, More than their weakness In some cases to $ 6.50 per hour. This allowed them to compensate for the purchase price in only 15 years – with another 60 years of profit. The city lost reliable flow of revenues and abandoned control of part of its infrastructure.

Donald Cohen, author of the book “You have been thrown.” The privatization of everything.

He said that since real estate investors will not do government buildings unless they believe that they are able to make profits that they rent, it is unlikely to provide sale and long -term savings for agencies. “They will not pay less than anything else [already] He said: “Payment to keep the building. There is no way to pay less; it’s physically not possible.”

Instead, he suggested that the federal government be able to raise the necessary funds through parts of unused buildings to a private tenant. “The assets are valuable, and you can generate revenues from them,” he said. “Do not give up the seed atom.”

Doug’s critics note that obtaining the best government deal may not be the ultimate goal of the cost controllers in the Trump administration. Elizabeth Panki, the administrative director of politics and calling for “cooperative work”, said that the sale of the building is a shortcut to close the programs that the administration considers luminous.

I cited an example Social SecurityWhere it has the Trump administration Cut Employees and at one point planned for Close offices While adding new requirements to the beneficiaries to appear personally For identity tests, system effort.

“If the space selling plans pass,” I do not expect to see a better deal for taxpayers, I expect to see that the real estate Mogul gets profit and reduces services. “

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com

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2025-04-02 11:01:00