GSA Assembles Land for Major Expansion

CHICAGO-The city is selling a 12,500-sf building at 212 S. State St. to the US General Services Administration for $2.15 million, the last piece to the acquisition puzzle for a 1.5-million-sf expansion of the federal government’s Downtown office campus. The GSA is considering several options, including identical office towers on the 200 block of South State Street, in an expansion that could take 20 years to complete and depends heavily on federal budget negotiations.

Expansion will be east of the current federal campus, which includes the 1.2-million-sf Dirksen Federal Building at 219 S. Dearborn St., 1.1-million-sf Kluczynski Federal Building at 230 S. Dearborn St. and 711,000-sf Metcalfe Building at 77 W. Jackson St. The General Services Administration’s public building service, which serves as the federal government’s property manager, already has bought six other properties as part of a $53-million acquisition program.

“We have concluded we need to expand the federal center,” says GSA assistant regional administrator David Hood. He adds that it is “unprecedented” for the federal government to commit to a $53-million property acquisition program ahead of a final development plan.