Originally published Top federal buildings official steps down ahead of reorganization rollout on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2025/07/top-federal-buildings-official-steps-down-ahead-of-gsa-reorganization/ at Federal News Network
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A top official in charge of the federal government’s real estate portfolio is stepping down a week before implementing his agency’s reorganization plans.
Michael Peters, commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration, is leaving the agency and returning to the private sector, according to Marianne Copenhaver, GSA’s associate administrator for strategic communications.
“He is ensuring a smooth transition as he returns to the private sector,” Copenhaver told Federal News Network.
This is the second major shakeup in GSA’s leadership ranks. Last week, Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, took over as acting GSA administrator “at the direction” of President Donald Trump. The previous acting administrator, Stephen Ehikian, is staying on as deputy GSA administrator.
Peters told employees in an email earlier this month that a reorganization of PBS would begin the first week of August. It’s not clear yet what impact, if any, his departure will have on the implementation of those reorganization plans.
“We will share the new PBS organizational structure and leadership roles, and will notify employees of their assigned organizations then. We will be holding all-hands meetings and forums for you to ask questions, and also be communicating with our partner agencies regarding the reorganization at the time,” Peters told employees in the email obtained by Federal News Network.
Peters took office at the start of the Trump administration and immediately set out on a plan to dramatically cut the federal government’s real estate.
In January, Peters said GSA would cut its governmentwide real estate portfolio by 50% and many agencies — including GSA — would move out of their downtown headquarters in Washington, D.C.
PBS plans to cut 63% of its total workforce and has already laid off entire regional offices.
Peters told employees that the PBS reorganization would be complete by mid-August.
“Please remember that this reorganization is about strengthening our ability to serve the American public and our stakeholders more effectively and efficiently. It reflects our commitment to improving how we deliver on our mission and ensuring we are best positioned to meet current and future customer needs,” he wrote.
At a town hall meeting in April, Peters told employees that GSA was setting an 80% utilization goal for federal buildings, as part of the Trump administration’s mandate to bring federal employees back to the office full time. The USE IT Act, signed into law in January, requires agencies to maintain an average occupancy rate of at least 60%.
Peters told staff that GSA was planning to deploy new tools to ensure agencies make full use of their buildings. If not, GSA would make the underutilized space available to other agencies or sell it.
“One of the best ways to measure the efficiency of what we’re providing is the occupancy of our facilities. Just one problem with that: I could do a survey of all of us and say, ‘Well, what’s the occupancy of our buildings right now?’ My guess is I’d get a couple hundred different answers, because we have no idea,” Peters said.
“We literally don’t know how many people are in our buildings,” he added. “We kind of have an idea of how many people are in this building, which is good. But we should know it for every one of the facilities that we own or lease, because that’s a fundamental metric.”
An industry official told Federal News Network that the White House saw “too many unforced errors” from GSA’s cuts to federal real estate.
At the Department of Government Efficiency’s urging, GSA planned on cancelling nearly 1,000 leases on federal buildings, but ended up walking back many of those plans after getting complaints from tenant agencies and lawmakers.
GSA in March also released a list of 440 “non-core” federal buildings it would consider offloading from its portfolio. But GSA pulled the list down a day later, after getting pushback. The list now includes several dozen properties.
“Congress has heard so many of these stories from their constituents and from the affected agencies, where the leadership of GSA just became an embarrassment,” the source said.
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Originally published Top federal buildings official steps down ahead of reorganization rollout on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2025/07/top-federal-buildings-official-steps-down-ahead-of-gsa-reorganization/ at Federal News Network
Originally published Federal News Network
