March 4, 2025, 7:45 PM EST
Editor’s note: After this story was published on March 4, more than 100 buildings were removed from the GSA list of “non-core assets” slated for sale, including the Department of Energy headquarters and Germantown, Maryland campus, and many other buildings in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. GSA and DOE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has included the Energy Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and offices in Maryland on a list of properties around the country that are slated for disposal.
The list, compiled by the General Services Administration, includes 443 properties in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere around the country that are home to a range of government agencies.
Among those properties deemed “non-core assets” that have been “designated for disposal,” are the Forrestal building in Washington — which houses the Energy Department — and a Forrestal day care. The list also includes Germantown facilities called DOE Main BLDG GTN, DOE auditorium and DOE Germantown day care.
DOE and GSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the DOE facilities included on its list.
The Germantown facility was initially designed to house the Atomic Energy Commission, which became part of the Energy Research and Development Administration. That was ultimately folded into the Energy Department. DOE’s Germantown site “is an annex for many administrative operations and offices,” according to a Maryland profile of the facility.
The Germantown site — about 25 miles from downtown Washington — was picked in the 1950s with the reasoning that it would be outside the blast range of the largest weapon conceivable at the time (20 megatons). The building was also designed to safeguard against a nuclear blast, according to a DOE history.
The GSA list of facilities comes as the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency aims to shed office space and shrink the size of the federal government.
“We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal,” GSA says on its website. “Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.”
GSA said it plans to update its list as assessments progress.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February directing GSA to draft a plan to dispose of government property that agencies determine is no longer needed.
