Key FY 2017 Statistics

• Total buildings: 127,416
• Total square footage of buildings: 1.2 billion square feet
• Total structures: 191,883
• Total land acreage: 9.3 million acres
• $16.5 Billion – Annual Operation Costs
• $7.92 – Average O&M Costs per Square Foot
• $27.49 – Average Lease Costs per Square Foot

I first started working with public facilities and physical infrastructure capital planning and management decades ago. At the time, the federal sector portfolio (as well as education, state/county/local government), etc. was crumbling under the weight of deferred maintenance and poor management. Little has changed over the subsequent decades.

Reports, such as ASCE’s Failure to Act: Closing the Infrastructure Investment Gap for America’s Economic Future, give the Federal Sector a D+ average grade for managing structures associated with surface transportation, water and wastewater, electricity, airports, inland waterways and marine ports infrastructure.

Some “experts” point to lack of funding, while other highlight the waste caused by bureaucratic ineptness. The truth is likely that both are to blame.

Managing the numerous repair, renovation, maintenance, sustainability, and construction projects required for any building or asset portfolio is a daunting task. It requires leadership as well as technical and business process competency. 

While LEAN construction procurement and delivery methods (such as job order contracting and integrated project level) have existed for decades than can consistently assure on-demand, on-time, and on-budget quality outcomes, many if not most federal departments and agencies have yet to require proper implementation at an organizational and/or enterprise level.

As an individual, you might say…so what… this doesn’t affect me. On the contrary, it costs the average American household $3,400 each year. The cost comes in the form of auto repairs, lost productivity, and other factors caused by poor physical infrastructure.

The General Services Administration (GSA) maintains the Federal Government’s database of all real property under the custody or control of executive branch agencies, except for property excluded for reasons of national security. This database is known as the Federal Real Property Profile Management System (FRPP MS).

Note: Owned and otherwise managed annual operating and maintenance costs consist of the following: recurring maintenance and repair costs; utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse collection, and disposal including recycling operations); and roads/grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, landscaping, and snow and ice removal from roads, piers, and airfields). Lease costs for leased assets are comprised of two sub elements:  lease annual rent to lessor and lease annual operating and maintenance costs.  Agencies provide full year costs.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the GSA owns and leases over 376.9 million square feet of space in 9,600 buildings in more than 2,200 communities nationwide. In addition to office buildings, GSA properties including land ports of entry, courthouses,laboratories,, post offices, and, data processing centers. As a result, the impact of lack of proper funding and management at the GSA presents staggering liabilities.

Then there is the matter of security. Here also, the GSA and other Federal real property owners are behind. A GAO report highlighted several small steps OMB and GSA has taken to promote compliance across the agencies.

Since 2003, federal real property was noted as “high risk” by the GAO. Since that time, “federal agencies continue to face long-standing challenges in several areas of real property management, including: (1) disposing of excess and underutilized property effectively, (2) relying too heavily on leasing, (3) collecting reliable real property data to support decision making, and (4) protecting federal facilities.” (GAO High Risk Report – Managing Federal Real Property)