WASHINGTON, DC-President Barack Obama will sign a memo Thursdaythat will require federal agencies to eliminate $8 billion inbuilding costs by the end of the 2012 fiscal year, according to the Washington Post.

The order is for the federal government’s nationwide realestate holdings. Government operations in the Washington, DCarea, however, will no doubt be closelyscrutinized. Besides selling off the approximate 14,000 vacantbuildings that the government owns or consolidating the55,000, or so, that have been deemed underutilized, the neworder is also likely to mean a stepped up aggressiveness inhow GSA negotiates leases with private sector landlords.

That, more than any other development stemming from this order,is likely to have the biggest impact on the DC area. Inmany respects, the government is not a particularly savvyconsumer of commercial real estate, Joe Brennan, head of JonesLang LaSalle’s Government Investor Services group, tellsGlobeSt.com. It often waits until a lease is near expirationor has expired before it will renegotiate the terms, hesays--something that causes complications on both sides of thetable. This new order, he speculates, will likely lead to anend to that procrastination.