Maryland's procedure for selling off excess properties is fairly straightforward. "To dispose of state property, the using agency notifies the State Clearinghouse that it no longer needs the property," DGS's Office of Real Estate notes in a document describing the office's activities. "If there are no other governmental agencies interested in utilizing the property, and if it is determined that the state's interest is better served to dispose of it, the Board of Public Works declares the property to be surplus and approves it for disposal."

DGS is then left with the task of assessing the amount the state should ask for the property, as well as the method of sale to be used in its disposition. The Board of Works gets the final say in what goes.

According to the Maryland Department of Planning, the state owns about 13,600 parcels of land totaling 500,000 acres, the value of which is said to be approximately $7.8 billion. The figures do not include state-owned office buildings; the number of buildings in Maryland's stable was unattainable at the time of this writing. But one structure that is rumored to be on the list of properties that could hit the market is the World Trade Center on Pratt Street in the city's Inner Harbor area. Purported to be the world's tallest pentagonal building at 28 stories high, the approximately 280,000-sf office tower was designed by famed architect IM Pei and dates back to 1977. Today the building, which occupies a one-acre parcel, carries an assessed value of nearly $48 million.