If you’re looking to buy up some Downtown Dallas real estate, three buildings may be about to hit the market.
As part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing attempts to ax what he deems government bloat and waste, hundreds of federal buildings across the country are being put up for sale. Two dozen properties happen to be in Texas, and three are centrally located in Downtown Dallas.
A list posted to the General Services Administration’s website Tuesday reported nearly 450 buildings were identified as underutilized and "not core to government operations.” That list has since been removed and cut back to around 320 buildings, The New York Times reports. Most of the properties removed from the list over the last 24 hours are high-profile buildings in Washington, D.C.
The original list included properties that serve as the headquarters for the Health and Human Services Department, F.B.I, Federal Aviation Administration and the Labor Department. The Department of Justice building was also included in the property audit; each of those buildings have been removed from the updated list, the Times reports.
The “for sale” list seems to be spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, and also included properties in Fort Worth and Farmers Branch among those deemed unsuitable.
The three downtown Dallas buildings that could soon be for sale are the A. Maceo Smith Federal Building, the Santa Fe Federal Building and the Terminal Annex Federal Building. While the properties are not yet on the market, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration told The New York Times the agency will be considering and evaluating all serious offers made on the properties listed.
A. Maceo Smith Federal Building
Located at 525 S Griffin St., the A. Maceo Smith Federal Building was named for a leading civil rights leader and the former owner and publisher of The Dallas Express. (While the Black newspaper once published in defiance of the Ku Klux Klan, it now operates under the watchful eye of hotelier and Republican megadonor Monty Bennett.)
Dallas-area offices for several federal agencies are located in the building. The Northern District of Texas’ Public Defender’s office is on the building’s sixth floor, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Region 4 Employment and Training Administration office is located on floor three. (The Employment and Training Administration has offices in five other cities across the U.S.)
The Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Executive Board, one of 10 executive boards started by President John F. Kennedy to help facilitate interagency coordination, appears to office on the building’s eighth floor.
Santa Fe Federal Building
A recognizable art deco structure that shares a wall with the Earle Cabell Courthouse, the Santa Fe Federal Building sits at 1114 Commerce St. and once served as a hub for shipping out North Texas soldiers serving in World War II.
The building was designated a historic Dallas Landmark in 1989 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service, which provides security for federal courthouses and buildings, is listed as occupying the building’s first floor today.
Terminal Annex Federal Building
Constructed in 1937 at 207 S Houston St., even the General Services Administration recognizes the history behind the Terminal Annex Federal Building. The white-stone structure was built on land once owned by John Neely Bryan, Dallas’ founder, the administration says, and is a part of the Dealey Plaza Historic District.
Inside the national historic landmark are two murals commissioned as part of the New Deal Art Program.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Dallas office is listed as being on the building’s third floor. Dallas’ U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command is the building’s fourth floor tenant. A daycare is also located within the building.
Other North Texas Properties For Sale
The Center Phase 5 building in Farmers Branch was also listed as sellable. Texas Public Radio reported the property recently received a $500,000 tune-up. Downtown Fort Worth’s Fritz Lanham Building also made DOGE’s list, to the surprise of the federal public defenders who occupy the property.
And though this isn’t a North Texas factoid, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the George Thomas Mickey Leland building in Houston was also included in Trump's audit of unnecessary buildings. Sen. Ted Cruz’s home-base office calls the Leland property home.
