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Page 22 — Office Properties Quarterly — December 2016
I n the coming months, Denver
building owners will have the
unique opportunity to do busi-
ness with the federal govern-
ment as more than 1.4 million
square feet of leases are projected
to expire, creating a significant need
for office space in the downtown
core and throughout the Denver
area.
General Services Administration’s
Rocky Mountain Region 8 leasing
officials will start seeking those
office spaces in early 2017 as sev-
eral partner federal agency leases
are ending. GSA works with partner
agencies to identify and negotiate
leases to assist in meeting their mis-
sions.
GSA’s mission is to provide the
best value in real estate to govern-
ment agencies and to the American
people. GSA currently manages a
federally owned and leased inven-
tory of more than 374 million sf of
space across the country– more than
8.8 million of that in Region 8 and
5.5 million in the Denver metro area.
The upcoming lease expirations
for GSA’s Rocky Mountain Region are
occurring over the next five years,
with a bulk of that in the next two
years. GSA wants to begin work-
ing with building owners who have
leasable space in order to make the
lease transitions as smooth and
seamless as possible for the partner-
ing federal agencies.
Providing cost-effective real estate
solutions for federal agencies some-
times means constructing a new
building or consolidating agencies in
existing federally owned space. But
often it means going to the market
and soliciting for
a lease. When GSA
takes this route,
the agency’s goal
is to seek ways to
maximize competi-
tion, meet agency
requirements and
reduce costs to
secure the best
value in the mar-
ketplace.
One of the most-
effective ways to
secure best value
is by soliciting for
leases with lon-
ger terms, where
appropriate. A
longer-term lease
often results in lower rates for the
government and, ultimately, taxpay-
ers. It also means the cost to make
the space occupiable (furniture, IT,
etc.) is partially contained within the
cost of the lease and partially borne
by the partner agency and is maxi-
mized since that investment can be
used for a longer period of time. For
these reasons, GSA has been work-
ing hard with partner agencies to
identify requests where longer-term
leases can be pursued.
To make it easier for building own-
ers to conduct business with the
federal government, GSA introduced
a web-based leasing tool and acqui-
sition platform called the Automated
Advanced Acquisition Program. The
AAAP was designed to consolidate
and streamline the leasing process,
making for a more efficient, trans-
parent process that also secures the
best value.
The AAAP will impact how the
GSA Rocky Mountain Region con-
ducts its leasing significantly by
transitioning the traditional pro-
curement approach to an electronic
platform that will serve as GSA’s pri-
mary vehicle to acquire office space.
With such a significant amount of
leases expiring in the Denver area,
GSA believes this tool will be invalu-
able to its leasing business partners.
The AAAP allows building owners
and their brokers to electronically
submit lease offers through the web-
site at wards
are made through AAAP to the low-
est-priced building that can accom-
modate the government’s needs in
terms of square footage, technical
requirements, length of lease term
and delineated area.
The program speeds up the leasing
process by allowing building own-
ers to submit available space in the
database one time annually for con-
sideration against multiple require-
ments each agency has, in place of
every single leasing opportunity. GSA
then matches federal agency office
space needs to the inventory in the
database to identify the lowest price,
technically acceptable property and
other factors. The efficiencies cre-
ated by the AAAP are estimated to
reduce procurement times by three
to six months, delivering the needed
space to federal agencies faster and
initiating rent payments to building
owners sooner.
GSA’s Rocky Mountain Region leas-
ing team will be hosting an Industry
Day to inform the business commu-
nity about the new leasing opportu-
nities, describe the upcoming agency
lease needs in detail and explain
how the AAAP works. The event will
be held Feb. 7 from 10 a.m. to 12
p.m. (MST) at the Byron G. Rogers
Federal Building in Denver. For more
information contact
gsa.gov or visit
aaap.s
James Randle
Leasing division
business center
manager,
General Services
Administration,
Rocky Mountain
Region 8, Colorado
Springs
Leasing Trends
The program speeds up the leasing process
by allowing building owners to submit
available space in the database one time
annually for consideration against multiple
requirements each agency has, in place of
every single leasing opportunity.