Trump administration puts Cincinnati’s Downtown Peck office building on list for sale
CINCINNATI (ENQUIRER) - Cincinnati’s John Weld Peck federal office building is now officially a “non-core asset” up for possible sale, our media partners at the Cincinnati Enquirer report.
The Government Service Administration on Tuesday said it has identified 440 non-core assets, with nearly 80 million square feet, for which it will consider “divestment from government ownership in an orderly fashion to ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space.”
Without mention of President Donald Trump or Elon Musk, the government agency evoked their focus on cutting the federal budget.
Noting “decades of funding deficiencies” for the 440 buildings, “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues,” a Government Services Administration press release said.
What’s in the Peck building?
The Peck building, with close to 691,000 square feet, sits at 550 Main St. in downtown Cincinnati. The Internal Revenue Service is the main tenant, with additional space for Corps of Engineers, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau, National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a government web page about the building.
Built in 1964, the 10-story limestone Peck building is named for the John Weld Peck, a federal judge who served terms with the U.S. District and Appeals courts and the Ohio Supreme Court. Its current value is $49.2 million, according to the Hamilton County Auditor’s site.
Peck is one of six ‘non-core’ sites in Ohio
The building is one of six in Ohio considered non-core, the Government Service Administration said in a press release.
The others are:
- The AJ Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland, with 1.2 million square feet.
- The Bricker Federal Building in Columbus, with about 230,000 square feet, plus a Columbus parking facility.
- A warehouse in Dayton with close to 204,000 square feet.
- The Donald J. Pease Federal Building in Medina, with 8,200 square feet.
Selling all 440 non-core assets will potentially save more than $430 million in annual operating costs, the General Service Administration said.
What happens next
The agency said it will complete market research about “potential disposition strategies” for the buildings. It will consider non-traditional lease agreements and public/private partnerships for the sites going forward.
As the Enquirer reported earlier – based on reporting from Wired magazine – the government will hang on to what it considers core assets, including buildings used for courthouses, law enforcement and national defense purposes.
That includes the Potter Stewart Federal Courthouse, located downtown at 100 E. Fifth St. with about 440,000 square feet of space.
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