The federal government has terminated the leases of nearly 750 federal offices across the country, including 18 in Colorado. 

The word came down from the General Services Administration (GSA) on Feb. 25.

In a section called the “Wall of Receipts” on the Department of Government Efficiency website, nearly 10 million square feet of government real estate properties are listed as canceled or modified.

President Donald Trump has tasked DOGE and his Cabinet with rooting out what the White House described as “waste, bloat and insularity” in the federal bureaucracy. In particular, the White House is targeting positions that perform functions “not mandated by statute or other law,” with specific emphasis on dismantling “diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.”

On its website, DOGE said the country is projected to save $105 billion from the combination of asset sales, contract or lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions. DOGE said this translates to a savings of around $652 to the average taxpayer.

Trump’s administration earlier released — then retracted — a list of federal buildings across the U.S. that could be put up for sale, as it looks to fulfill the campaign promise of downsizing the federal government.

The General Services Administration (GSA) released a list of hundreds of properties it is considering selling but retracted it less than a day later. The webpage, which previously contained a “non-core” property list of 433 buildings, now said a list is “coming soon.”

“We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,” the page now said.

The now-defunct list has hundreds of federal government buildings that the Trump administration appears to be open to selling. Most of the federal buildings listed are in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, including large buildings and agency headquarters of the justice department, the FBI, and the agriculture department.

Colorado leases

The Denver Gazette attempted to contact most of the Colorado federal offices destined for lease-cutting, which ranged from secure work sites in high-rise city buildings to workplaces tucked away in remote locations. 

At least one small office on the Western Slope that regulates mine inspections and training programs to ensure safe working conditions for miners may be on the chopping block.

A law enforcement branch of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service based in Littleton is among the offices on DOGE’s list. Special agents who answered the phone in the office declined comment. A follow-up visit to the one-story beige brick building on the north end of Chatfield Reservoir revealed little — because the doors were locked and the lights were off. Cars were parked outside and a there was a note with a place to leave any packages.

The office is akin to a “CSI” for wildlife, responsible for investigating international and domestic crimes against imperiled animals and game birds, such as trafficking and illegal hunting. Specifically, the latest federal wildlife investigation in Colorado involves the illegal killing of a gray wolf in Grand County, according to the Littleton Fish and Wildlife website. 

With federal employees advised not to talk to reporters and offices scattered throughout the state with only automated messages, information on what the terminations mean remained hard to come by.

In the case of the U.S. Attorney’s offices at 205 N. 4th Street in downtown Grand Junction, the decision to end the lease for the entire fourth floor was rescinded, records showed. 

“As of today, we don’t expect any changes to our Grand Junction facility,” said Colorado U.S. Attorney spokesperson Melissa Brand. She would not comment further as to how the decision was reversed. 

In downtown Denver, the lease for the office of the International Trade Commission housed in a skyscraper in the North tower of 999 18th Street is also on DOGE’s list for lease termination. Though it’s impossible to reach the office without an appointment, building security said that it is the only office on the 7th floor.

Calls to LBA Realty were not returned, but according to the Denver Business Journal, the office connects Colorado and Wyoming businesses to other countries.

DOGE’s latest list shows about 10% of the active number of leases on the GSA list had been terminated.

The GSA leases from seven buildings in Colorado, about 4.08 million square feet of space. The agency owns another 89 buildings in the state, with about 6.79 million square feet of space, according to the GSA website.

No one answered phone calls or emails at the Craig branch of the Mine Safety Health Administration, or MSHA. The DOGE website listed it as a “True Termination-Agency Closed Office” for a facility which, according to the office, costs the government $184,283 per year in rent. 

Calls were being rerouted to the MSHA Delta branch, which is a three-hour drive away. 

A source who was granted anonymity in order to talk freely said people expect the Craig MSHA office to be eliminated but that they have not been officially informed “yet.”

Email inquiries and phone calls to the Washington, D.C. office of the Department of Labor, which oversees MSHA, were rerouted to the General Services Administration.

“Acting Administrator (Stephen) Ehikian’s vision for GSA includes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future,” GSA said in a statement. 

“GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization. A component of our space consolidation plan will be the termination of many soft-term leases. To the extent these terminations affect public-facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space,” the agency added. 

Ehikian, described on the GSA website as a “serial entrepreneur in the software industry,” was appointed as acting administrator of the GSA the day after Trump was sworn in. The Yale and Stanford University graduate said that it is his mission is to “make government work smarter and faster.” 

According to the GSA Facebook page, Ehikian oversees $110 billion in contracts and 360 million square feet of real estate and tech services.

IRS and Social Security offices on the list

Among the federal facilities whose leases are being eliminated are 61 national Internal Revenue Service offices from Bend, Oregon to Beaumont, Texas to Fredericksburg, Tennessee. 

None of Colorado’s IRS office leases is scheduled to be terminated. 

Leases for 48 Social Security office leases across the U.S. are being cut, including one in Grand Junction.

Examples of government agencies on the “Wall of Receipts” are facilities for natural resource conservation services, a Department of Education office in Kansas City, Missouri, and a small border patrol office in Shelby, Montana, which is scheduled to be shut down entirely, according to the DOGE website. 

The list of properties to be sold, and leases to be terminated, also comes after Trump signed an executive order to terminate, “as soon as practicable,” remote work. The order emphasized that agency heads should “make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Not much is known about the lease terminations to Colorado’s other targeted federal offices.

Among the 18 are the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Fort Collins’ National Forest Service facility, and the 1,245-square foot Civil Corps of Engineers office in Durango, which pays just over $35,000 per year to lease. 

Some are in remote locations and others are in downtown Denver, like the Office of the Secretary in downtown, whose annual lease, according to DOGE, costs nearly $3 million.

Also on the list is U.S. Geological Survey facility housed in Boulder’s Marine Street Science Center, whose lease does not expire until August 2025. The phone number to the USGS office at 3215 Marine appeared to be disconnected. The floor plan located on the building’s website shows that the Boulder USGS occupies a good part of the first level.

The University of Colorado Boulder received a notice from the GSA on Feb. 25 to terminate leased USGS office space in the Marine Street Science Center effective Aug. 31, 2025, said spokesperson Nicole Mueksch. She added that the USGS has had offices in the building for more than 30 years.

“Termination via Mass Mod” is the explanation given by DOGE for most of the Colorado cuts. 

The Washington Examiner contributed to this story.