Will the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood survive the Trump administration’s cost-cutting cleaver?

The Denver Federal Center, an institution for more than eight decades in the middle of Lakewood, faces an uncertain future as the new Trump administration begins the process of dramatically reducing the size of the federal workforce — and consolidating or closing the office space and buildings they inhabit.

The General Services Administration, which acts as the federal government’s real estate manager and broker, is under orders to begin terminating leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide. The 623-acre Denver Federal Center campus — or parts of it — could well end up in the cost-cutting crosshairs, local officials and representatives fear.

The agency’s regional managers have been told the goal is to terminate as many as 300 federal office leases per day.

The Federal Center, home to roughly 28 federal agencies, is considered the largest single grouping of agencies outside Washington, D.C. About 6,200 employees are spread across 44 buildings on the campus, which is at the southwest corner of Kipling Street and U.S. 6.

The center contains more than 4 million square feet of lab, warehouse and office space.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who represents the Jefferson County-centered district in which the Federal Center sits, lambasted President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman chosen by the president to help trim costs in the government, for their “repeated illegal attempts to put our federal workforce on the chopping block.”

In a Thursday statement to The Denver Post, Pettersen called the retrenchment orders an “unacceptable attack on our Constitution and the public servants who go to work every day in our district to conduct groundbreaking research, manage millions of acres of public lands, work on critical wildfire mitigation efforts and provide other critical services that Coloradans rely on and our tax dollars pay for.”

Among the federal agencies housed at the Federal Center are the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management.

While there have been no official announcements made about the center’s future, The Post this week obtained a Feb. 4 letter from GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian to federal agencies stating that “President Trump has outlined a clear vision to restore efficiency, fiscal responsibility and optimism to the Federal Government.”

The letter, which does not mention the Denver Federal Center by name, says the GSA is tasked with “right-sizing the Federal office portfolio by accelerating the disposition of underutilized and inefficient buildings, reducing capital liabilities, and moving Federal operations into more modern and appropriately sized spaces.”

It asks agency heads to determine by Feb. 14 if “your agency’s ability to fulfill its mission will be irreparably compromised by a termination, and provide evidence thereof.” After that date, the GSA will begin ending leases for agencies that haven’t successfully argued for an exception, the letter reads.

A spokesman for the GSA didn’t address the Federal Center’s status when asked this week by The Post.

The GSA owns and leases more than 363 million square feet of space in 8,397 buildings in more than 2,200 communities nationwide. The properties include courthouses, post offices and data processing centers.

Fed Center is “critically important”

Lakewood Mayor Wendi Strom said the Federal Center “is critically important to the local and regional economy.”

“These dedicated public servants are also conducting important work that addresses the safety and welfare of the American people,” she said Thursday. “As with any industry contributing to our economy, any significant changes to the workforce or its facilities is of extreme concern.”

Any changes at the federal campus, Strom said, “should involve a prudent, planned process that includes the input of residents and representatives before any decision is made.”

Speculation about the future of the Denver Federal Center comes amid a nationwide fiscal restructuring effort by the Trump administration that included a directive last week attempting to freeze billions of dollars in federal spending. The funding suspension effort was quickly stopped by judges and rescinded — at least for the moment.

And this week, up to 40,000 civilian federal workers in Colorado — and thousands more across the nation — faced a tough choice: tender their resignations and be paid through Sept. 30 or hold firm and face future rounds of belt-tightening and strict return-to-office requirements as the government reduces remote accommodations.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the president’s ultimatum to federal workers after labor unions challenged it as illegal. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston paused its implementation until after he could hear arguments from both sides at a court hearing scheduled for Monday.

Home to notable facilities

The Denver Federal Center, which started out in 1941 as the Denver Ordnance Plant making ammunition for soldiers fighting overseas during World War II, features the National Ice Core Laboratory. Its vault, with a temperature of 40 below zero, holds a half-million ice core samples from Antarctica, Greenland and high-mountain glaciers that date back 4.5 million years.

It is the largest ice repository in the world.

“It’s absolutely spectacular,” Jansen Tidmore, president and CEO of the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation, said of the ice lab.

Tidmore worries more about lost jobs than lost buildings as cuts are made across government facilities.

“It’s about making sure we preserve jobs and the crucial research associated with them,” he said. “There’s a lot of pride in Colorado and Jefferson County in having the Denver Federal Center here.”

Denise Maes served as the GSA’s regional administrator for an area that included Colorado for more than two years under former President Joe Biden. Since it was a political appointment, she stepped down the minute after Trump was inaugurated for his second term on Jan. 20.

“It’s an icon in that part of Lakewood,” Maes, who worked in Building 41 during her tenure with GSA, said of the Federal Center. “There’s a history about it. There’s an economy around it.”

Like the fact that Building 810, a 675,000-square-foot warehouse, was once one of the biggest facilities of its type in the western United States, and the fact that Building 710 was built with a basement that can withstand a nuclear attack.

Maes said she feared the GSA’s current downsizing posture could harm — or even do away — with a Colorado institution.

“This is not recognizing the value of the place and what it does for Americans every day,” Maes said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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