The 247 federal workers stationed at the 408 Atlantic Ave. office can relocate to other federal properties in the area, said Dan Mathews, a PBRB board member. The US Coast Guard has another, larger, waterfront location in Boston’s North End.
“Then it puts that property into a developable state, where it can be developed with private funds, which will generate tax revenue and would be a great economic benefit to the city of Boston,” Mathews said.
Since last April, the PBRB said it had twice notified US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, along with Representative Stephen Lynch, of the possible sale of 408 Atlantic Ave. The board estimates the building would cost $91 million to modernize, and that it has $28 million in deferred maintenance.
“The property is potentially suitable for conversion to residential use and the building could accommodate 110 housing units,” the PBRB report said.
The building sits within 42 acres of waterfront covered by the city’s Downtown Municipal Harbor Plan, that outlined development and zoning guidelines from Long Wharf to the Moakley Bridge. The plan highlighted possible development at the Harbor Garage, where developer Don Chiofaro has long envisioned a tower, along with development at the Hook Lobster site.
In her time as acting mayor, Kim Janey withdrew the plan; the Wu administration has not restarted it, but it is possible that a taller building at the Coast Guard site could be part of future efforts.
For its part, the PBRB is a bipartisan group created by Congress in 2019 to identify underutilized federal properties that could be sold or consolidated. Since 2020, 10 federal properties that the PBRB suggested shedding have been sold for $193 million; an 11th is is under agreement for $130 million.
Selling Boston’s Coast Guard office would mean a cost saving potential of $138 million for the federal government, the PBRB said, and relocating the Coast Guard into other government-owned space would reduce operating expenses by more than $1 million annually.
The federal Office of Management and Budget needs to approve the suggested list of properties to sell and leases to consolidate, which isn’t a guarantee. PBRB in late 2021 suggested 15 properties to sell in 10 states, but OMB later rejected the recommendation. Mathews, who was appointed to the board last year by former president Joe Biden, said that the board felt “optimistic” about OMB approving the latest round of suggested properties.
“The financial case is really quite strong,” he said.
If approved, shedding the 11 properties would cut 7.4 million square feet from the federal government’s real estate portfolio and would save around $5.4 billion in future maintenance or other building management costs over three decades. The properties combined could create $346 million in sales proceeds, an estimate Mathews said was “conservative.”
The PBRB worked with real estate advisor Jones Lang LaSalle to determine which properties should be recommended for sale. The General Services Administration, which will be running the sale process, has recently renewed a contract that allows it to hire real estate brokerages to sell the properties. On a press call Thursday, PBRB board members said it was difficult to give exact timing of when the sale process would start.
The PBRB studied 58 federally controlled properties in downtown central business districts before releasing its suggestions this month. Beyond the Boston Coast Guard office, the board has identified nine office buildings in Miami, Nashville, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, and the Washington, D.C., area that could be sold, along with three US Department of Agriculture leases in Albuquerque, that could be consolidated.
The buildings include a vacant 11-story office that sits on 3 acres at Washington, D.C.’s L’Enfant Plaza, a 29-story concrete office in downtown Atlanta, and a 1.8 million-square-foot office on nearly 16 acres directly south of the National Mall that’s home to 4,898 Department of Energy workers and needs $379 million in immediate repairs.
Catherine Carlock can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @bycathcarlock.
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