Feds list Peachtree Summit building for "accelerated disposal"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The Peachtree Summit Federal Building in Downtown. Photo: Fulton County Board of Assessors
The Peachtree Summit Federal Building in Downtown Atlanta is one of eight properties the federal government wants to sell as quickly as possible.
Why it matters: The General Services Administration's latest list of properties "identified for accelerated disposal" comes weeks after the agency published to — and later removed from — its website a list of more than 440 buildings it could potentially shed.
Zoom in: The Peachtree Summit Federal Building, which houses the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was constructed in 1976 and valued at $97.6 million in 2024, Fulton County property tax records show.
- GSA lists the building as having 803,990 square feet of "rentable area."
- The agency did not share specific reasons why it included Peachtree Summit on the list.
Catch up quick: GSA's original list identified "non-core" buildings the federal government could potentially offload, including the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building.
- The agency reduced the number to 320, then removed the entire list from its website — but not before the story was picked up by local and national media outlets.
- GSA says the newest list of eight reflects a "more incremental approach focusing on a shorter list of assets that have already been evaluated" across criteria like maintenance and operating costs, utilization and the local availability of replacement space.
What they're saying: "We anticipate the list will be republished in the near future after we evaluate this initial input and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed," GSA said in a statement.
- "GSA will continuously review and update the list of non-core assets."
The other side: The thought of the government offloading hundreds of buildings rankles local historic preservationists, who worry that if sold, the buildings' unique characteristics could be at risk of being stripped away.
- They are also part of the fabric of Downtown, said Atlanta Preservation Center executive director David Mitchell.
- "The buildings are the physical reminders or witnesses to the challenges and achievements of what we've done," he said. "Transferring [them] to private hands for development, reactivation or demolition … gives the story of this city to the top bidder."
The fine print: Thomas Little, a semi-retired architect who does historic preservation consulting, told Axios federal law requires each agency to assess how its actions would affect historic buildings when they are making decisions.
- However, Little said with the federal government shedding its workforce, his concern "is that person that would have raised their hand at the GSA is not there."
The bottom line: The government spent millions of taxpayer dollars maintaining these buildings "because we thought they were valuable cultural resources," Little said.
- "And just to toss those away to the low bidder raises a lot of concerns," he said. "And I think it would raise concerns with a lot of people, no matter what political background they have."