Charlie Johnson, who worked for nearly 25 years at the U.S. agency that handles federal real estate, decided to step away to work on the other side of the contract table as the government recalibrates its footprint nationwide.
Partners, a Houston-based commercial real estate services firm, hired Johnson to leverage his tenure as a senior leasing program manager with the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service to launch its own federal leasing practice.
As an executive vice president and head of federal leasing in the firm's Atlanta office, Johnson and his team are set to offer contract audits and other advisory services nationally at a time when the government real estate landscape is undergoing sizable changes, including plans to sell older properties and relocate agencies to optimize use of federal buildings.
Last year, the Department of Government Efficiency, the initiative known as DOGE and led by billionaire Elon Musk, set a goal to cancel at least 700 federal leases. However, many of those cancellations did not occur or were reversed as agencies argued they needed the space, leading to some uncertainty over ongoing policies.
Moreover, the federal government continues to monitor the percentage of space that agencies use to determine if further cuts can be made. GSA is also contending with the fallout from a March report issued by a Congress-appointed panel that found the U.S. government property portfolio needs $50 billion in deferred upkeep.
“The timing is significant. More than half of GSA 7,300 leases are set to expire over the next five years, creating a critical window for landlords to optimize their contracts."
Meanwhile, in less than two years, Partners' Southeast operation has grown to more than 70 professionals, 18 of them equity partners. As for Johnson, before joining GSA in 2002, he graduated with a bachelor's in finance from Virginia Tech. For GSA, the Virginia native worked on disaster leasing assignments in the field during Hurricane Katrina, among other assignments.
CoStar News spoke with Johnson about how his public service and experience in expedited and emergency federal leasing prepared him for the next phase of his career. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why did you step away from GSA now?
I had looked at going to the private sector a few times over the years. For one reason or another, I stayed. I ended up having coffee one day with [Partners Southeast President and Managing Partner] John O'Neill, and we just started talking about the market.
Partners was at a time when they were growing in Atlanta. It was the right time in government real estate. Of course, we were right at the high point of DOGE and everything that was going on at that time. All of that upheaval added a certain need in the market for someone who really understood the commercial real estate side of things but also very specifically the government contracting side of things — because that's the playbook that most government contractors that are landlords lack.
What lessons and skills are you taking to this role from GSA?
We're building a team that is built very specifically on inside GSA experience. That gives us a perspective that is very valuable. Most of the people we have to work with for our clients — these are people that we worked with for decades. We worked with them as peers and colleagues.
Oftentimes, a landlord might try to find a commercial real estate solution to what is perhaps a government contracting problem. Sometimes there's two ways to do something. One way is going to essentially require a 10-page checklist and a year, and another way might get the client the same outcome, but it's a two-page checklist and it can be done in a few months.
Especially now, GSA is going to have very little patience and ability to work with landlords that are not exceptionally precise and accurate in how they do business. By bringing that actual lease contracting officer experience to our work for the client, we're going to be able to put a lot of options and solutions on the table that just may not be available to them if they're working with somebody else.
How would you describe the state of federal leasing?
What you're going to see now, and what we've already seen, is that there has been a significant shift in terms of the deal pipeline for GSA. That deal pipeline has largely become frozen.
What that means is that incumbents can no longer count on a steady succeeding lease or superseding lease to roll over things. They have to become increasingly savvy about optimizing the financial performance of an existing government contract.
The story for 2025 was certainly all about DOGE, and again, what we've really seen is that DOGE's impact was not nearly as significant as what was anticipated. GSA was already on a path where they were shedding space year over year. Then DOGE came in and certainly created a significant amount of risk and upheaval in the market. However, the net effect has been rather muted.
In terms of going forward, the story in '27 and '28 is right now shaping up around the USE IT [Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies] Act [that requires federal agencies to maintain at least a 60% utilization rate for all public and leased buildings]. There was of course the report that GSA recently put out that's been widely publicized that talks about the fact that not a single agency is currently meeting the utilization thresholds that are required under that law. There is going to be a significant amount of consolidation activity. There's going to be hopefully a thawing in that pipeline, if you will.
Should more landlords look to lease space to the government?
A GSA lease still represents a very good investment; there's still a lot of positive aspects. We're still on the aggregate going to see a certain amount of stability, especially around mission-critical assets, purpose-built assets. Those types of things are going to continue to perform very well.
If you've been very used to leasing to GSA and calm waters and smooth seas, it's time to start looking at whether you have the right equipment to go into the next era when things get rougher.