The David J. Wheeler Federal Building in Baker City is among 10 federal buildings in Oregon on a list of “non-core assets” that could be sold.

The General Services Administration, the federal agency that manages federal buildings, announced on Tuesday, March 4, that it had identified more than 440 buildings nationwide, totaling almost 80 million square feet of rentable space, that “are not core to government operations.”

“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” according to a statement on the GSA website.

“GSA will consider non-core assets for divestment from government ownership in an orderly fashion to ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space, or the significant maintenance costs associated with long-term building ownership — potentially saving more than $430 million in annual operating costs.”

A list of non-core assets in Oregon was not available Wednesday morning, March 5, on the GSA website, which stated that the list, which apparently was posted Tuesday, was “coming soon.”

Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian both reported Tuesday that the Wheeler building, at 1550 Dewey Ave. in Baker City, was on the list. It is the only such building in Eastern Oregon. Three of the 10 are in Portland, three in Medford, two in Troutdale and one in Eugene, according to OPB.

GSA didn’t include any potential timeframe for potentially selling federal buildings.

Another GSA document shows that the agency plans to end the federal lease for a privately owned building in Baker City that is the local office for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The record lists a termination date of Sept. 30, 2025, for the building at 3100 H St.

The agency “will be engaging in market research and customer agency feedback regarding the potential disposition strategies for non-core assets, and will consider current use, occupancy, cost of agency relocation, and local market conditions when assessing disposition.”

The Wheeler building was constructed in 1967. The three-story structure has about 45,000 square feet. The building was last appraised in 2020, and its real market value is estimated at $6.5 million, according to Baker County Assessor’s Office records.

It includes office space for the U.S. Forest Service’s Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and also serves as the Baker City post office.

The building was renamed for David Wheeler, a Forest Service employee from Baker City who was murdered in Idaho in April 1995.

In December 2013, employees from the Forest Service’s Whitman Ranger District moved from modular buildings on 11th Street to the Wheeler Building.

The Forest Service in 2015 spent nearly $1 million to build a new structure near the Wallowa-Whitman’s vehicle compound at 11th and H streets. That building has office and meeting spaces.

Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both criticized the Trump administration for proposing to dispose of federal properties and leases.

“Given Donald Trump’s checkered legacy in the private sector of multiple bankruptcies and real estate deals gone awry, forgive me if I’m more than a little skeptical when that dubious record gets applied to the public sector,” Wyden said in a press release. “I’m nowhere near convinced this fire sale of federal assets throughout Oregon is in the best interest of U.S. taxpayers who paid for these facilities or for all Oregonians who depend on them for a reliable power grid, a functional court system, constituent services and more.”

“For a man who spent his whole life treating everything as one big real estate transaction, it’s no surprise Trump doesn’t grasp that federal buildings in our communities provide a central place for folks to access government agencies and the everyday essential services they provide, like keeping our electric grid functioning and providing help with the IRS and Social Security,” Merkley said in a press release. “The Department of Government Inefficiency has struck again, and I’ll be pushing to keep this short-sighted deal for Oregonians from closing.”