Evening star., 1933-12-23
CAPITAL WILL FACE
DESIRABLE OFFICE
SPACE SHORTAGE
Majority of Private Buildings
In Downtown Section Are
Nearly Full.
GOVERNMENT HOUSING
SITUATION Is SERIOUS
Federal Units Requiring Large
Area Have Difficulty Finding
Quarters.
BY VINCENT TUTCHING.


The Capital is faced with an impend-
ing shortage of desirable Office space.
With the majority of private Office
buildings in the downtown area more
than go per cent occupied, building
managers see the prospect of a dearth
of usable floor area in the near future.
The Government, which of late has
been forced to spread some of its many
departments and bureaus into private
structures, already is finding the prob
lem acute.
Although Uncle Sam operates 54
Federal-owned buildings here, with a
gross floor area of l0,359,973 square
feet, the emergency bureaus, commits
SionS and administrations" set up un-
der the Roosevelt administration have
filled to overflowing all of these struc-
lures.
The result has been that many Gov
ernment agencies are being housed in
private Office space, in various parts of
the city. The needs of some of these
Federal units have been so great, ac-
Cording to officials in charge of housing
them, that private buildings with
limited amount of available floor space
have been compelled to turn them
down.
Some Buildings Full.
Some Of the private buildings in the
central business district report 100 per
cent occupancy. Others which are filled
to over 80 per cent have been unable to
accommodate prospective Government
tenants because of inability to provide
sufficient adjoining floor space,
Figures compiled recently at the
Office of National Parks, Buildings and
ReSeTv9 fiOr1S n cOT7n1atR charCa
of this work, which was formerly
handled by the Office Of Public Build
ingS and Public Parks, show that the
combined gross floor area rented by
the Government in privately owned
buildings is in excess Of l,2000 900 square
feet. This space is included in approx
mately IS privately-owned buildings, of
which II are directly managed by the
Government.
The annual rental bill Of the Office of
National Parks, Buildings and Reserva-
tiOnS, according to a recent compilation
by A. E. Demaray, senior assistant di-
rector in the Office, is between 100000
and sl,000,0 900, The Governments mov-
ing bill in 1882 was nearly a quarter of
a million dollars, he said and in 1888
1t is expected to considerably exceed
that figure.
Survey Being Made.
I'VE had expected to turn back a
number of rented buildings after COM
pletion of the triangle group" Dema-
ray said, but with the mushroom
growth of the new emergency activities,
such as the N. w. A., P. w. A., C. w. A.,
A. A. A, and others, I am now not so
confident in that direction. We are
now making an elaborate survey of our
space situation"
Illustrative of the extent to which
Office space in private buildings here
has been rented are estimates Of
the building managers of several down
town structures The Washington
Building reports nearly 100 per cent
occupancy; the Investment Building,
100 per cent occupancy above the first
floor; Tower Building. 90 per cent;
Standard Oil Building, 95 per cent;
Shoreham Building, 95 per cent; Mum
sey Building, 95 per cent; Denrike
Building, 80 per cent; Southern Build
! ing, 90 per cent; National Press Build
: ing, 80 per cent; Earle Building, 85 per
/ cent, and Woodward Building, 85 per
cent. Of the remaining newer type
buildings. nearly all report occupancy
greater than rs per cent.
This record of demand for Office
space is the greatest experienced in
the local Office building field for sev-
eral years observers declare.