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WIRED
06-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
A Sensitive Complex Housing a CIA Facility Was on GSA's List of US Properties for Sale
Photograph:A now-deleted list containing hundreds of United States government properties that the General Services Administration (GSA) plans to sell includes most of a sprawling, highly sensitive federal complex in Springfield, Virginia that also houses a secretive Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) facility, WIRED has learned. The GSA's effort to sell hundreds of US government properties is part of a blunt reshaping of the federal government and its workforce led by Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Staffed in part by young engineers with no prior experience in government, DOGE's efforts have resulted in mass reductions in force, the effective shuttering of entirely independent agencies, and a flurry of lawsuits that seek to mitigate DOGE's razing of the government over the past six weeks. The GSA published the list on Tuesday and pulled it down the next day. Before the full list of 443 properties was removed, more than 120 properties had already been quietly scrubbed, including 14 buildings that did not appear to be listed in the Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties (IOLP), a comprehensive public database of GSA holdings. Most of these properties, aside from one identified only as 'Building A, 6810,' were labeled as either 'Butler' or 'Franconia.' According to public records, all of them are part of a large federal facility known as the Parr-Franconia Warehouse Complex, or the GSA Warehouse, which sits, fenced in by chainlink topped with barbed wire, at 6810 Loisdale Road in Springfield. Most of the buildings in the complex, which dates back to the early 1950s and is dominated by a 1,005,602 square-foot warehouse long used as a government supply depot, are believed to be used by various government agencies for mundane purposes. Right in the middle of the complex, though, next to the warehouse and catty-corner to what's listed as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) headquarters, is a U-shaped building long notorious for its alleged ties to the CIA. 'Obviously, someone did no research about the long and well-documented history of this property,' says Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and a longtime advocate of redeveloping the complex, which is near a Metro station and sits in a prosperous area. 'Normally a site like this wouldn't be outed, so to speak, but everyone knows it's here except, apparently, the people who put this list together.' The CIA's use of the building located at 6801 Springfield Center Dr., not all of which can necessarily be observed from street level, was first reported in 2012 by the Washington Business Journal, which in an article around the same time called the CIA's presence in the area 'perhaps the worst-kept secret in Springfield.' The most specific description of its purpose, as the publication noted, can be found in the 2011 spy agency-focused nonfiction book Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking by Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz, who write, while describing a clandestine operation, that 'There were two pick-and-lock specialists from the agency's secret facility in Springfield, Virginia. In a warehouse-like building there, the CIA trains a cadre of technical officers to bug offices, break into houses, and penetrate computer systems.' (Whether it is currently used for these purposes is unknown.) According to the Journal's reporting, Fairfax County leaders like McKay were frustrated because plans to redevelop the complex ran up against the existence of this facility. 'The entire challenge with redevelopment has been this entity,' McKay tells WIRED. 'This idea that you can sell everything around it and it will be OK runs counter to all the intelligence information we've been given over the past couple of decades. Without divulging the specific details of the activities, the government has been very clear about the sensitivity of the property.' Even a widely supported plan to relocate FBI headquarters to Springfield foundered due in part to the CIA presence. While the FBI would not have raised security concerns, its relocation to the site would have raised logistical ones. Some government agencies, says McKay, said redevelopment was impossible; others said the secret facility would have to be relocated at the expense of the incoming tenant, making it far more expensive than other potential sites. Since Tuesday, GSA sources have been wondering about the possible inclusion of CIA buildings on the list that was posted and then deleted. One source with knowledge of CIA operations, when asked about concerns that the GSA may have listed at least one of the agency's facilities as being for sale, immediately acknowledged 'the Springfield building.' (The building itself, which in past reporting has been described as being held by a private owner, does not appear to have been listed for sale, but due to its sensitivity, selling the buildings around it would raise much the same concerns.) 'There have been rumors swirling that some of the buildings identified house classified CIA space,' says one source at GSA, adding, 'the release of 'non-core properties' was especially surprising, as this nebulous language has not been historically used at [GSA].' As the Washington Business Journal reported in 2012, a real estate appraisal in the late 1990s listed the CIA as one of the complex's tenants, indicating its presence there extends back at least three decades. It is nonetheless possible that the GSA does not know, at least officially, that the CIA has operated within the Springfield warehouse complex, a source at GSA tells WIRED. 'In general, we have agencies that perform many critical law enforcement and national security functions,' they say. 'We are not always aware of what type of operations are being conducted within tenant spaces. We build out operations to their specs and ensure their spaces are up to code. In my own personal experience, there are spaces in our buildings that not everyone knows about. Not necessarily CIA specifically.' 'I think it just shows you how completely unorganized this birdshot of a list is,' says McKay. The CIA declined to comment. The GSA did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. On Wednesday, the GSA issued a press statement acknowledging the feedback the agency had received and asserting that inclusion on the originally published list did not mean a building would be up for sale immediately. 'We anticipate the list will be republished in the near future after we evaluate this initial input,' the statement read, 'and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed.' 'I am not saying it's CIA or not,' a former intelligence analyst who worked at Langley for more than a decade tells WIRED. 'But it's reckless that this information is out there at all. It speaks to the fact that these guys have no interest in even understanding government operations.' Matt Giles contributed reporting.
WIRED
05-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Here's a Map of the For-Sale Government Properties the GSA Pulled From Its Website
Dhruv Mehrotra Leah Feiger Tim Marchman Mar 5, 2025 5:15 PM The General Services Administration plans to sell hundreds of government buildings, including FBI headquarters. Use our interactive tools to see where they are—and the Congressional districts they're in. On Tuesday, the General Services Administration (GSA) published a list of more than 400 federal buildings and properties to be sold, including the FBI headquarters, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Justice, and other key federal facilities. Hours later, 123 buildings, including high-profile sites like the J. Edgar Hoover Building and Veterans Administration buildings in Washington, DC, were removed from the list. By Wednesday, the entire list had disappeared from the GSA website. WIRED has created a map and a searchable table of the government properties that were for sale and briefly listed, which also includes corresponding political representatives for each location. WIRED cross-referenced two datasets to create the map: the list of 'non-core' properties originally published—and then removed—by the GSA, and the Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties (IOLP). The GSA defines non-core properties as buildings and facilities that are 'not core to government operations,' and in a press release about the list, argued that sales would provide "savings to the American taxpayer." The IOLP, a publicly accessible database, offers detailed information on GSA-owned and leased properties across the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa. Among those originally denoted as for sale are historically significant properties like Chicago's Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, and the Custom House, an Art Deco building taking up a city block in Philadelphia's Old City. Less prominent but still notable buildings include the Martinsburg Computing Center in Kearneysville, West Virginia, which houses what the IRS describes as its 'individual and corporate tax administration master file data base,' and the Central Heating Plant in Washington, DC, which provides heated and chilled water to government buildings, museums, and national monuments. (The GSA has since claimed that not all buildings are for sale, but the agency has repeatedly changed its tune throughout different internal documents and communications to staffers.) The GSA, an independent government agency, manages government IT and a significant portion of the federal real estate portfolio. In recent weeks, the agency has been decimated by forced resignations and reductions in forces, including the elimination of 18F, a GSA unit focused on government efficiency. GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS) is reportedly planning to cut 63 percent of its workforce, about 3600 people in total. Elon Musk's associates are staffed throughout GSA, including Technology Transformation Services director Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer, and X staffer Nicole Hollander. A number of young DOGE technologists also have access to the agency. WIRED previously reported in February that employees at the GSA were told to sell off more than 500 federal buildings, including properties that house government agencies and the offices of US senators. The list of these buildings divided the properties into 'core' and 'non-core' assets, and designated the 'non-core' assets as to be sold. A note on the original list states that the agency's intention is eventually to reduce the 'size of the owned real estate footprint by 50 percent and the number of buildings by 70 percent. Reductions will be focused on the non-core general office space of the portfolio which can be replaced as needed in the private leased market. Moving forward, all non-core buildings will be disposed of and their tenants will be transitioned into leases.' GSA has not said why it published and then subsequently removed the list. 'Some have suggested [the list was taken down] due to the negative press,' says a source at GSA, who, along with others mentioned in this story, WIRED is granting anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the press. 'There has been no national strategy on how GSA is supposed to engage customer agencies on their occupancy agreements in these buildings.' 'Our portfolio [team] haven't heard anything from our national office on what's actually going on,' another source says. Other sources have described a small group at GSA, walled off from other employees, making decisions in tandem with DOGE. 'The thing you need to realize is the administrator [of GSA] and PBS commissioner are making these decisions in a vacuum,' says a source, referring to Michael Peters, the recently appointed PBS commissioner, and Stephen Ehikian, the acting GSA administrator. 'The regional staff, senior regional leadership, and most GSA national office staff, don't get to talk to the administrator or PBS commissioner. They have a floor locked off at GSA headquarters with elevator access restricted. They're in there with DOGE reps … I know it sounds like a bad James Bond movie or I'm making it up, but they literally have locked off a floor.' Peters and Ehikian did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The link to the list published to the GSA website has been replaced by a page that says 'coming soon.' 'We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,' the page states. 'Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.' In a Wednesday press statement, GSA did not clarify why the list was deleted. 'To be clear, just because an asset is on the list doesn't mean it's immediately for sale,' the statement reads. 'However, we will consider compelling offers (in accordance with applicable laws and regulations) and do what's best for the needs of the federal government and taxpayer.' The agency added, 'We anticipate the list will be republished in the near future after we evaluate this initial input and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, emailed employees about the list of buildings and noted that a number of its buildings were identified as 'non-core' assets. 'CMS was not aware this was happening, and we didn't submit or approve any of our current office locations being on this list,' the email states. 'We are in active discussions with HHS to ensure we have the facilities we need to fully return to the office in-person and continue performing our critical mission.' Sources tell WIRED that the posting of the list yesterday has resulted in chaos at GSA. 'There's a reason we have processes and they just don't follow them,' one source says. 'Amateur hour,' says another source. Zoë Schiffer and Vittoria Elliott contributed reporting.
