by Dan Robinson
This article showing within the Washington Enterprise Journal experiences that President Joe Biden signed laws that orders the sale of the Wilbur Cohen Constructing at 330 Independence Avenue, which has been headquarters to the U.S. Company for International Media (ex-Broadcasting Board of Governors) and Voice of America for a lot of a long time.
Relocation of the company and VOA has been within the planning phases for the final a number of years, with the USAGM CEO and different officers claiming that financial savings from standing down the Cohen Constructing, which was constructed between 1939 and 1940, in phases would greater than pay for the relocation.
Nevertheless, sources contained in the company have doubts. The brand new constructing chosen by the now outgoing CEO, Amanda Bennett, at 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW — only a couple blocks from the White Home, is at present simply workplace house with no manufacturing/broadcast amenities.
A report by the consulting agency Deloitte lays out a multi-year timeline for the company via 2027. It accommodates the next description: “New facility was beforehand solely workplace house and doesn’t at present have the infrastructures to help Broadcast Expertise wants. Facility will should be retrofitted to take action.”
The article by Ben Peters of Washington Enterprise Journal says:
“Congress has directed the Normal Providers Administration to promote the storied Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Constructing as a part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to dump underutilized actual property belongings. The Biden Administration final week signed off on the Thomas R. Carper Water Assets Improvement Act of 2024 that, amongst its many provisions, requires GSA to promote the 330 Independence Ave. SW, situated a crosswalk away from the Nationwide Mall, “for honest market worth at highest and finest use” no later than two years following the emptiness of its final remaining federal company.
It goes on to notice that USAGM and VOA are believed to be the one occupant of the constructing. At 1.2 million sq. toes, the Cohen Constructing far exceeds the realm of the deliberate new headquarters constructing, however company officers have asserted that a lot of the Cohen Constructing house was not really used.
Nonetheless, staff are questioning how company employees at present ranges will have the ability to match at 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, and this has been the topic of questions at latest inner City Corridor conferences.
Washington Enterprise Journal continues: “If offered, the Cohen constructing would be a part of a rising checklist of federally owned properties which have been or stay within the strategy of being offloaded because the GSA accelerates long-standing plans to chop again the federal actual property portfolio. That work is anticipated to speed up underneath the incoming second Trump administration.”
“USAGM final 12 months signed a 15-year deal to relocate and downsize its workplaces from 698,000 sq. toes on the Cohen constructing into 350,000 sq. toes on the EastBanc-owned 1875 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The deal represented by far D.C.’s largest fourth-quarter lease transaction, serving to to maneuver the District’s workplace emptiness charge down ever so barely for the primary time in years.”
The article additionally quotes a 2024 report by the Public Buildings Reform Board, which discovered that USAGM’s workplaces at Cohen have been simply 2% full between January and September 2023. The massive workplace house there has a capability of three,431 staff however noticed, on common, simply 72 individuals really utilizing it every day throughout that interval, the report mentioned.”
The low occupancy of the Cohen Constructing got here to the eye of members of Congress getting ready experiences on the abuse of telework and distant work by federal staff, outstanding amongst which is Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA).
One photograph of VOA’s near-empty newsroom, taken by a vacationer visiting VOA, appeared on the World of Radio group, instantly contrasting with what as soon as was a vibrant VOA central information operation.
As Authorities Govt detailed right here, Senator Ernst proposed “a trio of payments concentrating on Washington, D.C.,-area federal staff that might mandate businesses transfer employees—or their total headquarters—out of the area, in addition to extra carefully observe teleworkers’ actions.
The Decentralizing and Reorganizing Company Infrastructure Nation-wide to Harness Environment friendly Providers, Workforce Administration and Administration Practices—or DRAIN THE SWAMP—Act (S. 23) would require all non-national safety businesses to relocate 30% of their headquarters employees outdoors of the D.C. space inside one 12 months of the measure’s enactment.
The Requiring Efficient Administration and Oversight of Teleworking Workers Act (S. 21) would “require businesses to measure the login information and community visitors—that’s, the quantity and charge of knowledge movement—from teleworking federal staff’ computer systems to make sure that they’re doing their jobs whereas outdoors of conventional work websites.
One other invoice, Strategic Withdrawal of Companies for Significant Placement Act (S. 22), would bar businesses from enterprise renovations or renewing the leases of their D.C.-area headquarters and as an alternative require them to solicit bids from different cities to relocate outdoors of the nationwide capital area. It’s price noting that 85% of the federal workforce already lives and works outdoors of the D.C. space.
Ernst instantly cites low occupancy charges at businesses’ D.C. headquarters, saying she was “already working exhausting on my high priorities—to empty the swamp, save tax {dollars} and get federal staff again to serving the American individuals,” Ernst mentioned in a press release.
Lots of historical past occurred within the Cohen Constructing, together with President Ronald Reagan’s go to, throughout which this photograph was taken. I used to be within the constructing within the early years of a 34-year profession with VOA when this go to occurred.
It’s clear that VOA and USAGM itself face potential downsizing particularly at a time when the main target of the incoming second Trump administration is on decreasing waste of taxpayer funds by federal businesses. The extent to which the company has its funds (which stood at about $950 million in 2025) lowered stays to be seen.
