So far nearly 1,000 federal office leases have been terminated in a move that marks the beginning of several waves of reductions expected to conclude by the end of the fiscal year. However, this initiative has already encountered complications, as officials have discovered that many of the terminated leases were for public-facing facilities, which were not intended to be part of the cuts. As a result, the General Services Administration is now rescinding about 300 of these lease terminations, according to extensive reporting by the Federal News Network.

The news outlet spoke with four current or former GSA officials, all of whom requested anonymity. They revealed that the GSA did not consult with its regional offices before terminating the leases, and some tenant agencies were not notified beforehand.

The agency is contacting lessors to effectively retract the cancellations, saying, "Just kidding. We would like to cancel that [termination],” according to an official with GSA’s Public Buildings Service.

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.