The Fritz G. Lanham Federal Building at 819 Taylor Street in downtown Fort Worth is officially on the market, and the Fort Worth dispositions are expected to save more than $348 million as the federal government sheds one of its properties in North Texas. The nearly 700,000-square-foot tower currently houses the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and the National Labor Relations Board, all of which now face the prospect of finding new office space in the coming years.
The listing was confirmed by The Real Deal, which reported that the U.S. General Services Administration also put an adjacent parking garage at 401 Texas Street up for sale alongside the Lanham building. GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said disposing of the building and garage advances the federal government's shift toward what he described as an efficient shared-campus model for agency workplaces, according to a GSA announcement issued Thursday.
The sale is part of a much larger federal push. GSA reported that its nationwide asset disposition program has sold more than 127 properties since January 2025, generating $614 million in sale proceeds while avoiding $1.15 billion in delinquent maintenance and eliminating over $1 billion through lease reductions, per the same GSA release. The agency has projected that accelerated sales nationwide could eventually yield up to $2.7 billion in long-term savings.
A Building Weighed Down by Deferred Repairs
The Lanham building's finances help explain why it landed on the chopping block. Its maintenance needs add to the costs of a national portfolio the GSA has been working to shrink.
The building's problems weren't just structural. In August 2025, federal workers inside the Lanham building reported significant hygiene and safety concerns tied to mold and a rodent infestation, which GSA attributed in part to increased occupancy following return-to-office mandates, according to Newsweek. The building was already listed for accelerated disposition by the time those complaints surfaced.
Army Corps of Engineers Among Tenants Facing Uncertainty
Beyond the IRS and Social Security Administration, the Lanham building has served as the regional headquarters for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District since 1980, supporting military and civil construction work. The district's future office arrangements remain uncertain as the sale proceeds.
A GSA Greater Southwest Region spokesperson clarified earlier this year that listing a property for disposition signals federal intent to offload the real estate, but that specific relocation and employment decisions remain under the authority of each tenant agency, per reporting from the Dallas Business Journal. The sale could involve leasing the property back to federal agencies, rather than requiring immediate replacement leases or relocations.
Part of a Broader North Texas Sell-Off
The Lanham building isn't the only major Fort Worth asset GSA has targeted. In April 2025, the agency designated the nearly 894,000-square-foot Fort Worth Federal Center on Felix Street for accelerated disposal, making it the largest Texas property put up for sale at the time, according to Bisnow. That complex houses regional offices for FEMA, the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA.
The Real Deal's reporting also ties the Fort Worth sales to a wider Dallas-area push, noting that the Department of Government Efficiency has targeted buildings including the Centre, the Terminal Annex Building, the A. Maceo Smith Federal Building and the Santa Fe Federal Building in Dallas, together totaling roughly a million square feet.
A Contested Tally of Canceled Leases
The scale of DOGE's claimed savings has itself become a point of dispute. The Real Deal reports that DOGE's lease-termination tally stands at 264 leases, with 108 already in termination and $53.5 million in savings.
GSA's broader real estate disposition effort has also touched San Antonio, where federal land valued at $30 million went to Project Marvel, an initiative aimed at creating a new arena for the San Antonio Spurs and a mixed-use entertainment district, The Real Deal reported. GSA has pursued real estate dispositions in some form since the pandemic.
A Downtown Fort Worth Landmark's Uncertain Future
The Lanham building's history runs deeper than its recent maintenance troubles. It is located at 819 Taylor Street in downtown Fort Worth.
When GSA first identified its national list of 443 non-core federal buildings in March 2025, the agency calculated that those properties cost taxpayers more than $430 million annually to operate and required $8.3 billion in long-term recapitalization, according to the Dallas Business Journal. That list was briefly posted online before being pulled down amid heavy market response, and GSA has since outlined alternatives to outright sales, including sale-leaseback arrangements, agency consolidations into shared spaces and public-private partnerships, per The Real Deal. Whether the Lanham building ultimately changes hands through a straightforward sale or one of those alternative structures remains to be seen as the listing moves forward.
