ORLANDO, FL—The federal government is sitting on an untapped gold mine of thousands of vacant or under-used properties—including 600 buildings at Kennedy Space Center alone—that, if taken over by the private sector, could go a long way to spur investment and help light a fire under the lagging economic recovery.

That assertion came from US Rep John Mica (R-FL), who was the keynote speaker at the RealShare Central Florida conference, held here yesterday. Mica spoke to about 200 real-estate brokers, developers, property owners and investment specialists. The event was one in a series of RealShare Conferences that are held across the country with a national event coming Nov. 4-5 in Miami.

“The federal government is the biggest property owner in the world,” Mica said. “It would be great for business if these vacant federal buildings would be sold. However, the waste goes on.”

Mica blamed in particular the US General Services Administration for being especially slow to release vacant or under-utilized properties. The GSA is an independent government agency that helps manage and support the basic functioning of other federal agencies. It supplies products and communications for federal offices along with transportation and office space to federal employees.

In its role as the government's primary “landlord,” the GSA alone is sitting on some 14,000 buildings and other properties that are vacant or under-utilized, Mica charged. This does not include excess space on military bases or properties controlled by other federal agencies.

“The government is sitting on its assets,” Mica said with chuckles greeting that remark around the conference room, filled with more than 200 attendees.

Mica chairs the House Transportation Committee, and one of its subcommittees oversees public buildings. In that role, Mica said he has had only modest success in getting the GSA to release properties the government no longer uses. He cited one case in which he “embarrassed” bureaucrats into attending a hearing in a vacant annex of Washington's Old Post Office when “it was 32 degrees outside and 38 degrees inside. Everyone was wearing topcoats,” he said.

Ultimately, Mica's panel succeeded in cajoling the GSA to auction off the postal annex. It is now a five-star hotel employing 1,000 people, he said. There have been a few other such successes, he added.

Asked after his formal remarks what it would take to force the GSA to take a broader, wholesale approach to the privatization of these under-utilized assets, Mica said bills to accomplish that very goal have passed the House more than once but keep getting killed in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“That could change after next Tuesday,” he said in reference to the midterm elections, where one-third of the Senate seats are up for grabs. In fact, he said, if the Republicans regain control of the upper house of Congress, many good things could happen in the months following.

If the Senate “flips” next week, Mica said there could be a lot of positive changes in tax law and regulatory issues. If Republicans do take over the Senate—the House is considered certain to remain in GOP hands—a great deal of pro-business legislation could be passed between next February and August 2015 when, he noted, the next presidential election cycle will gear up.

“In spite of your government in Washington, we are coming out of the recession, albeit slowly,” Mica said. “Slower than it should have been.”

Because of Mica's role as chair of the House Transportation Committee, many of his comments at RealShare about the prospects for new development in the Tampa-Orlando corridor were transportation-oriented. Among his points:

• Extending Central Florida's SunRail commuter line to Orlando International Airport will create new development opportunities near the airport and along the route.
• An even greater impetus to development around Orlando's airport will come with the doubling of the airport's capacity with the construction of a new southern terminal. The project includes $1.4 billion worth of infrastructure and transportation improvements, including an intermodal center to connect the north and south terminals. But, he cautioned, “transit-oriented development takes awhile.”
• When Port Canaveral, which is on the Atlantic coast just north of the space complex, upgrades to a greater focus on container shipping, as opposed to its current emphasis on passenger cruise liners, another 5,000 jobs should be created. Improvements at the port could include new freight-rail lines to connect ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida.
• Shifting much of Florida's freight traffic on railroads to the spine of the state through a new intermodal center at Winter Haven “will take more trucks off Interstates 4 and 75 than anything else we could do over the next 50 years.”

Mica insisted he is bullish on growth and new economic opportunities in the Tampa-Orlando corridor. “We're about to explode in development in central Florida,” he said.