Bush Wants to Unload Some Real Estate

[flashl]

Source: Washington Post

What Bust?

Uncle Sam hopes to start selling off more of his unneeded real estate.

The president's fiscal 2009 budget would create a "real property disposal pilot" to expedite sales of deteriorating buildings and other property that is no longer needed.

The pilot project would move unneeded properties directly to sale and provide an incentive for agencies -- they would keep 20 percent of the net proceeds, with 80 percent going into the U.S. Treasury.

During the last four years, at the urging of the White House and the Government Accountability Office, federal agencies have been pulling together an inventory of what Uncle Sam owns and leases. A report last year identified more than 20,000 properties, some vacant, that federal agencies do not use but pay more than $130 million a year to maintain.

Washington Post

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/07/AR2008020703760.html?nav=rss_politics/fedpage

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Wonder if Yellowstone park on that list?

[Virginia Dare]

1. Selling more federal parkland to the lumbering industry?

isn't Bush part owner of a lumbering LP? Just how much further damage can this man do to our country in the next 11 months?:scared:

[flashl]

2. Unnerving isn't? Those were my EXACT thoughts. nt

[elehhhhna]

16. Uh huh. How much of Big Bend National Forest is on the block THIS time?

[KansDem]

28. They know no shame!

Bush cronies are nothing more than parasitic leeches in business suits.

[Demeter]

3. Bad Timing If He's Unloading Buildings

Still, there's a dearth of parking garages....could tear them down and build something somebody actually needed.

[pattmarty]

4. I'm not sure this is what you think. I believe it's something else.....

..... This looks like "old & unused" buildings and properties like maybe old postal buildings, warehouses, etc. This is a whole other thing different than "giving away" US forest lands to lumber interests and oil/gas interests. I think some close Republican "friends" are gonna make out like bandits on this bullshit deal. This is gonna be a fire sale at giveaway prices to certain "friendly" people.

[Roland99]

7. I wonder how long the GAO was pushing for this...

[Virginia Dare]

20. With that criminal bitch Lurita Doan in charge..

why isn't she in jail yet, she's still out whoring shrubya's sweetheart deals?:banghead:

[Auggie]

14. I believe that too.

Grease for real estate speculators, brokers, agents, investors, and so on.

Chimp is buying many friends.

[Deny and Shred]

15. Yes. Teapot Dome anyone? You know all his cronies are already

doing their homework on what to snap up, and the 'bidding' process will be short so the public won't be able to do any due dilligence.

Reminds me of how Enron ended up owning water rights across S. America. They got advanced word that the World Bank would be calling in certain loans which couldn't be covered. S. American governments would scramble for liquidity, and in stepped ENE with low-ball offers for key resources to cover the amounts due.

American innovation at it's finest.

[Harry Monroe]

5. Unloading some "real estate". I'm just glad he's starting with the White House!!

Of course the new Democratic President will have to shore up its rotting foundations.

[Orsino]

6. Probably just another bridge he wants to sell us. n/t

[tanyev]

8. Fire Sale! Everything MUST go before 1/20/09!

[Fovea]

9. now is the perfect time

to unload all those old fixer-uppers, like Detroit and NO, which has been nothing but trouble for George since he won it in that poker game with Dick.

[Dr.Phool]

10. We could start with the Capitol, and the House and Senate office buildings.

They could be replaced with a $5 rubber stamp.

Is Jeb back in the real estate business?

[SpiralHawk]

11. "You proles won't need this any more. Smirk." - Commander AWOL & republicon cronies

[flashl]

13. I read about that, wonder when we will get her out of hock? nt

[zonkers]

12. Hop off, W, you're done. Have a cookie and go quietly.

[paparush]

17. Bush** Brilliant Business Man ..Wants to Unload Real Estate in Post Bubble Reality

Just another GLARING indicator of how far removed from reality this man and his cronies are.

Of course, I realize this is probably a cover for a sweetheart deal so that some corporate money-slinging whores can get their mitts on the properties for next to nothing.

[olddad56]

19. makes it cheaper for his cronies to buy it.

[Eugene]

21. Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner!

Remember who's been running the GSA.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Here comes the fire sale!

This is standard for them. They loooooove selling off other people's resources.

[Earth_First]

22. In related news: "Chinese executives arrive on eve of government auction." n/t

[davepc]

23. Why should the goverment hold on to buildings it has no use for?

Though would make more sense to sell when the market was at historic highs.

[flashl]

25. I am sure these sales will be as beneficial for the public as this sale ...

Foreign Companies Buy Mining Rights on Public Land in U.S.

May 10, 2004

WASHINGTON – Companies in Canada and seven other foreign countries have obtained hardrock mining rights on one-fifth of all current and former public lands in the United States, an environmental group's analysis said Monday.
Some 28,000 companies and individuals paid less than $5 an acre to patent land with precious metals and minerals under terms of the 1872 Mining Law, Environmental Working Group said, citing figures from the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management.

Those claims account for 5.6 million acres of public lands, the group reported on a Web site in a study titled "Who Owns the West?"

"We comply with the law of the land, and it's important to remember that these companies provide high-paying jobs for rural communities throughout the West," said Celia Boddington, a spokeswoman for the BLM, which oversees 261 million acres.

Some of the companies and people got the mineral rights by patenting public land, effectively buying it and making it private. Others have active claims on public lands, still regulated by the BLM.

The federal government does not collect royalties from hardrock mining on either patented or public lands.

In case, it needed. :sarcasm:

[davepc]

26. Whats the public benifit of the goverment owning an empty building?

we're talking about buildings here, not mining rights.

Lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth in this thread, but the question remains: What should the government do for buildings it has no use for?

I guess once the government owns something it should hold onto it in perpetuity.

[flashl]

27. The mining rights example

along with about a 100 other actions from this administration demonstrates that this administration has not been fiduciary responsible nor acted in the interest of the public. For these reasons, I have no confidence that these sales are any different.

'We', the public, never learn about or understand the underlying reasons of 'political speak' until its too late to take action.

[JPZenger]

24. Now, priority goes to local govts, homeless groups, etc.

Currently, excess Federal property is usually first offered at a low price or free to local governments, homeless organizations, etc.

For example, many closed military bases were turned over to regional economic development organizations, so that they could create business parks to attract jobs to make up for the jobs that were lost. I know of one city that is seeking a former Army Reserve building to use as a police training center.

Would this initiative sell off these buildings to the highest bidder?

[flashl]

30. It appears that the pilot program will sell these buildings

Regarding, homeless veterans.

For at least the past two years, a homeless veterans advocacy group in my area has been in court attempting to gain access to military housing surrendered by the federal government. They cite a federal law that gives veterans first rights to land surrendered by the government. This veteran group is claiming that the local county board of commissioners have improperly appropriated the land to build a business park.

Given that there is a surge in homeless veterans, you would think local governments would be happy to find housing for them, but that's not happening here. 'Our' local officals are considering new laws that will have the effect of pushing the homeless outside of city and county boundaries.

[Javaman]

29. Wonder how much they want for a decommissioned missile silo? nt

[Xithras]

31. Things do need to be streamlined, but I disagree with this.

In downtown Modesto Callifornia, about 10 miles from my home, there is a beautiful old 1930's federal building across the street from the county courthouse that the federal government has been trying to discard. The building contains some of the best examples in California of some of the artwork commissioned during the WPA, in a series of 13 large murals painted around the ceilings throughout the building. The federal government moved out of the building back in the 1980's, and since then part of it has been rented to a tenant (the Post Office, for a drop-of station) while the rest has remained empty.

There has been a huge fight over the building since the government announced it's intentions to get rid of it. Homeless groups want it for housing, even though it's location in the middle of a business district (and far from any kind of services or stores) makes it a poor location for residences. Historians are also horrified that such a beautiful, historical building might get carved into apartments. Art groups and history groups have expressed interest in turning it into a museum or art gallery, but current law puts them lower on the priority list and limits what kind of work they can do in the building. Commercial interests have expressed interest in the property, but they either want to carve it into private offices (again, it's across the street from the county courthouse and in the middle of a business district) or level the whole thing and put a modern building in its place.

If this goes through, the developers will win. Neither the homeless groups OR the preservationists will get the building, and it will either be "modernized" and turned into a modern office building, or it will be knocked down. There is no way that any non-profit could afford the estimated $1 million the property is worth on the open market.

That said, the current process is horribly broken. The current attempt at selling it has been bogged down in rules and disputes between potential new owners, and after years of fighting are no closer to a resolution today than they were when they started.