The federal government has notified two of its landlords in Durango that it is terminating leases for offices that house the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
La Plata County, which owns the 10,000-square-foot office space in Bodo Industrial Park where Bureau of Reclamation is located, was informed Thursday by a leasing contract officer for the U.S. General Services Administration that it would be ending the lease for the space on Sept. 30 – two years early. No reason was given for the termination, according to an email obtained through an open records request.
Peter Glick, who owns the Army Corps of Engineers’ 1,000-square-foot office space in the Riverside Professional Building on East Third Avenue near the Durango Public Library, confirmed that he also had received notice that the GSA would be terminating its lease at the end of August.
In a written statement, GSA spokesman Jorge Pineda did not explain why the leases were being terminated early. But it appears the move is part of a nationwide sweep by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to cut costs by ending leases early. DOGE, which is not a formal department because it was not established by Congress, lists both Durango offices on its “Wall of Receipts.”
The Bureau of Reclamation office costs the agency $238,000 annually, and it will not pay any fee to break the lease before its scheduled termination in 2027. Rent for the Army Corps of Engineers office is about $35,000 annually, Glick said. The agency is also in the non-firm term of its lease and may cancel without penalty with 60 days’ notice.
“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,” Pineda wrote in an email to The Durango Herald. “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.”
He did not immediately respond to questions about the future of those offices.
Bureau of Reclamation employees manage waterways, dams and reservoirs, including Vallecito Reservoir, Lemon Reservoir, Lake Nighthorse and Navajo Lake. Some of the Bureau of Reclamation’s webpages for those sites had been updated with Durango street addresses but now list Grand Junction as the office location. The Army Corps of Engineers is broadly responsible for infrastructure work nationwide.
It remains unclear where employees from both offices will go when the leases end later this year. Glick said he spoke with employees at the Army Corps office who were unaware that the lease had even been terminated. Someone at GSA told Glick, “If you have any questions, I probably won’t be here to answer them,” referencing the indiscriminate firings that have occurred across government agencies.
La Plata County has not decided what will happen with the Bureau of Reclamation space; Glick said his office space will be available for rent after the Army Corps vacates it.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
