The federal government reform arm of President Donald Trump’s executive office is seeking to end five office leases, totaling 40,242 square feet of space, across San Diego County.
The listed local lease terminations were published by the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this month alongside hundreds of real estate contract cuts identified elsewhere in the country. The department identified $2.2 million in total savings from the San Diego area cancellations, but did not include specifics how the savings were calculated.
The terminations involve a Social Security Administration office in Carlsbad, a public-facing Internal Revenue Service location in San Marcos, a Food and Drug Administration site in University City, an International Trade Administration center in Kearny Mesa and a Department of Labor office downtown.
The federal leases, with the exception of the Carlsbad office, don’t appear to have been terminated yet, although most are set to expire this year or next.
The real estate in question represents only a fraction of the office space the federal government leases and owns in San Diego, but anticipated cuts to the local workforce could lead to additional office closures in the future.
“Because we don’t know the full scope of lease terminations, beyond what was initially released earlier this month, it’s difficult (to gauge the impact),” said Joshua Ohl, who is the senior director of market analytics for CoStar. “The initial wave of properties would not have a fundamental impact on San Diego, outside of the individual properties that may face occupancy challenges as a result of those specific terminations.”
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was established by executive order on Jan. 20 as a reorganization of the executive office’s U.S. Digital Service with a stated goal to modernize federal technology and maximize productivity. DOGE is overseen by billionaire Elon Musk, serving as a special government employee. The team seeks to identify waste, fraud and abuse, and is publishing information on canceled contracts, terminated grants and lease terminations on the DOGE website.
To date, DOGE has identified 793 lease terminations across the country totaling more than 10 million square feet of space and an estimated $500 million in savings. The highest concentration of space is Washington, D.C., where nearly 900,000 square feet of office space is being culled, according to an analysis by CoStar. Otherwise, the market-level impact of the lease terminations will be minimal in most locations, CoStar reported.
The DOGE data set identifies the city, government department, square footage, annual lease cost and calculated savings associated with each lease listed as terminated. It does not include specific addresses, but other public data sources, including the General Services Administration’s inventory list of leased and owned properties, provide some clarity on some of the locations. GSA administers real estate leases for the federal government.
In San Diego, the IRS office at 1 Civic Center Drive in San Marcos appears to be the largest lease on the government’s chopping block. The federal government leases 20,111 square feet on the fourth floor of the city of San Marcos-owned property, according to CoStar data and the GSA inventory list. The facility is a Taxpayer Assistance Center, providing in-person tax help on weekdays.
The San Marcos lease is set to expire in February 2028. The DOGE website states that the annual lease cost is $855,521. It pegs savings at $2 million.
When reached for comment, a GSA spokesperson did not provide additional information on the San Diego locations identified by DOGE and spoke generally of a desire to consolidate space and exit short-term leases.
“Acting Administrator (Stephen) Ehikian’s vision for GSA includes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future,” the spokesperson said in an email. “GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization. A component of our space consolidation plan will be the termination of many soft term leases. To the extent these terminations affect public-facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space. In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”
So far, a 3,579 square-foot Social Security Administration office at 2011 Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad appears to be the only San Diego location with a scheduled end date. The SSA will move out on June 4, said Maty Adato, who works for property management company WL Investments. The federal government exercised its lease termination right on Feb. 4, she said. The lease was scheduled to run through July 31, 2026.
The DOGE website states that the annual lease cost for the Carlsbad Social Security office is $116,449 and lists no savings.
In the city of San Diego, DOGE identified a 6,850 square-foot lease used by the Employment Standards Administration for termination. The description matches the Department of Labor’s office at downtown high-rise 550 West C St. The lease is set to expire at the end of the October.
DOGE lists savings of $56,510 on the $339,060-per-year lease, but the downtown building’s landlord has yet to be contacted about the termination.
“The landlord has not received any notices from the government regarding terminating the lease,” said Richard Gonor, an executive with Jones Lange LaSalle who handles leasing at the office tower.
In total, the federal government leases 35,547 square feet of space at the downtown building, branded Five50West, under five separate contracts, according to the GSA inventory list. The four additional leases have expiration dates ranging from April 2026 to March 2034.
DOGE is also seeking to end a 6,374 square-foot lease for the Food and Drug Administration at 4510 Executive Drive in University City. The lease for the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs at the medical office building expires on Sept. 30, 2026. DOGE lists no savings on the $454,339 per-year contract.
In addition, the government reform group is targeting a smaller lease at 9449 Balboa Ave. in Kearny Mesa. The 3,328 square-foot lease for an International Trade Administration export assistance center is set to expire at the end of August 2026. The DOGE website identifies savings of $75,753 and an annual lease cost of $90,904.
A leasing representative for the Balboa Avenue building said she hasn’t received any notice from the landlord regarding a cancellation.
The Kearny Mesa location is also home to the federal government’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, which occupies 9,563 square feet of space with a lease ending Jan. 6, 2039, according to CoStar.
Across San Diego County, GSA manages more than 75 leases of varying sizes, including a 131,986 square-foot lease for a Department of Veteran Affairs building in Mission Valley and a 248,882 square-foot lease for a Federal Bureau of Investigation building in Sorrento Mesa. GSA occupies 120,209 square feet of space at the Sunroad Centrum office tower in Kearny Mesa.
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