PORT ANGELES — A lease held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Port Angeles is among a list of government lease terminations hosted on the Department of Government Efficiency website.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a lessee in the Port Angeles Wharf. NOAA appeared on the tenants page of the wharf’s website as of Friday.
A filing on the DOGE website shows the space as being 4,556 square feet and claims that the terminated lease will amount to $100,232 in savings.
Management at the Port Angeles Wharf did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Local, regional and federal-level NOAA representatives did not return phone calls.
Kevin Grant, Sanctuary Superintendent at Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, a NOAA-administered program, referred questions to Maureen O’Leary, who did not immediately respond to questions.
Utilization
A U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) spokesperson addressed building utilization.
“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,” the spokesperson wrote via email. “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. In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”
GSA is responsible for managing federal government workplace real estate, according to its website.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.