In its bid to cut costs, the Department of Government Efficiency has ended leases around the country, including at the Florida office staffed with hundreds of federal workers focused on Everglades restoration and maintaining beaches across the state.
The federal government moved to end its lease for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Jacksonville, headquarters of the Jacksonville district and home to about 800 of the nearly 1,100 Florida-based employees.
Michelle Roberts, chief of corporate communications for the district, confirmed the Jacksonville office is aware of a letter from the General Services Administration sent to the company that owns their building, Bradford Allen.
The letter last week outlined the Trump administration’s desire to break the lease early, in August, rather than wait until it concludes in 2027, she said. A representative from Bradford Allen said the firm had no comment on the move, which emerged from the controversial cost-cutting overhaul spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk.
“We know that a letter was delivered from GSA and that’s all we know at this time,” Roberts said. “We’re awaiting specific direction to come down through the proper channels.”
The move to close down the Corps’ Florida headquarters comes amid a simultaneous federal push to send all remote workers back to the office. Dozens of federal employees near the Jacksonville office had already sought to work in person at the massive office in order to comply with the new directive.
The Corps’ biggest job in Florida is Everglades restoration, an ongoing multibillion-dollar effort that is the largest environmental restoration project in the world. But the agency also handles everything from adding new sand to skinny beaches to regulating development alongside rivers and bays.
The DOGE website says breaking the $4.3 million lease is a $9.3 million total savings for taxpayers. It represents the biggest chunk of the more than $12 million in terminated leases in Florida alone, according to the government website. It does not explain where hundreds of employees overseeing the Everglades project will work.
Leases for Army Corps offices were also terminated in Charleston, SC, Mobile, AL, California and Illinois, per the website.
Other Musk-team lease terminations listed include the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Hollywood, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa and the South Florida Ecosystem Office for Everglades National Park building in Homestead that houses scientists working on Everglades restoration.
The ecosystem office in Homestead is just one of dozens of buildings eyed for early lease terminations by the Trump administration. The National Parks Conservation Association released a leaked spreadsheet on Monday revealing even more potential future chops.
The list includes one in Florida that doesn’t appear yet on the DOGE website — the Robert Johnson Building in Tallahassee. The office space, within Florida State University, houses the National Park Service’s Southeast Archaeological Center. It’s home to more than eight million artifacts, according to the NPS website.
Cara Capp, greater Everglades associate director for the NPCA, said these cuts could “wreak havoc on our national parks.”
“These civil servants are on the frontlines for Florida, helping keep our state safe, our Everglades healthy, and our economy strong,” she said in a statement. “We can invest billions of dollars at the state and federal level, but without the Park Service and the Army Corps, Everglades restoration is just a dream, not a reality. And we will all be less safe.”
This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
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