Evening star., 1947-08-03
II. ). 10 Release
|ItsSpace in 40
Buildings Here
Return to Privute
Use Is Scheduled
By Next March

By Next March .
Within the next eight months thu
Federal Government will return tt
private use more than 900, 900 square
feet of of11cce and storage building
space which 1t has been rentine
here at cost OF 1894, $40 a year, &C.
cording to a report yesterday by
Commissioner of Public Building.
w. E. Reynolds.
The summary was requested BY
Representative OHara, Republican
OF Minnesota, Chairman of the judi
ciary subcommittee of the House
District Committee, who late in the
past session of Congress introduced
bill calling for regulation of COM
mercial building rentals here.
In the closing days of the session
Congress continued the Districts
residential rent control until the end
of next March, no action being
taken on the commercial rent issue
Mr.. OHara called for a current re-
port on Government lease of private
office space to see how much relief
would be afforded by contraction OF
Government leases.
Buildings Involved.
The Reynolds report showed that
all but small portion of $4,000
square feet OF private space held by
the Government would be given up
by Federal agencies before the end
OF this calendar year. Forty build
ings are involved in whole or In
part, all but about q third of the
total being Office building space. The
remainder was classed as storage
space.
Commissioner Reynolds report
showed the Government already hao
turned back huge quantity Of
ONCE space it had held under lease
during the peak wartime demand
Approximately TOTO, 900 net square
feet of space in 241 buildings were
carried in Public Buildings Admin
istration records as of June 80, 1945
Commissioner Reynolds advised Mr.
OHara. Since that date, he said
about 3,705,000 net square feet in
109' buildings were released, leaving
4,365 900 square feet in 1872 build.
ings as of June 80 last.
In listing space in the 40 build.
ings intended to be turned back to
private use on or before next March
Commissioner Reynolds wrote Mr.
O'Hara that PBA plans do not con.
template locating agencies under
the decentralization" program in
these buildings. Shortly before ad-
journment Congress appropriated
5000, 900 for the return to Washing
ton of a number of agencies which
had been sent out Of Washington
during the war years.
Not All Handled BY PBA.
y Mr.. eynoidssexplained that not
all of the Government-lease con-
tracts are cleared through the PBA
About IS per cent of the leased
space carried in PBA reports, he
explained. is covered by direct ap-
propriations to PBA. The balance is
leased by PBA on reimbursable
basis with various Government
agencies or is leased directly by
Government corporations for Fed
eral agencies. having rental ap.
preparations, but reported to PBA
for record purposes.
The Veterans Administrations
Washington regional Office yesterday
turned back more space to the Dis
trict government when its finance
division moved from the Municipal
Center, 300 Indiana avenue NV
to the agency's permanent. quarters
at 1925 H street NV.
The move will make 11.099 square
feet of space available for District
use at the center. Chester F
Nuamowicz, manager of the regional
Office, said.
However, the veterans agency still
is retaining about 1850 square feet
on the center's fourth floor and
another lila feet of storage space
in the basement.