The feds put property around courthouses on the market in NC. Will the sales happen?
It was a quick reversal.
Three federal buildings connected to courthouses in Asheville, Greenville and Raleigh were placed for sale last week on the U.S. General Services Administration’s website.
Then almost immediately they were taken down.
But the website makes clear that those buildings could still be under threat.
“Coming soon,” the sale list promises.
GSA’s website said agency officials are identifying buildings and facilities “not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal.”
“Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces,” GSA’s website stated. “Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.”
But court officials tell McClatchy that at least one of the buildings in North Carolina is used daily and the sale of another comes with complications.
GSA initially posted 320 potential sites for sale on March 4.
Among them: the federal courthouse in Greenville, a complex near Asheville’s federal courthouse, and an abandoned building in the parking lot of the federal courthouse in Raleigh.
By 2 p.m. March 5, the list was removed.
Greenville
The Greenville courthouse is an annex of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The district includes 44 of the state’s 100 counties with courthouses in six communities: Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington.
The district had 5,226 pending criminal cases as of Dec. 31, according to court records.
And the Greenville courthouse, an 11,285-square-foot building, holds court almost daily, including criminal proceedings, arraignments and Social Security hearings. A judge and law enforcement are assigned to the building.
“It’s a very active courthouse,” said Paul Moore, clerk of court for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Asheville
The Veach-Baley Federal Complex in Asheville was also placed up for sale.
That name is used to describe both a cluster of three buildings, including court facilities, and a single building within it containing federal offices. The GSA listing did not specify which part it was selling, but the space for sale, at 273,422 square feet, matches the size of the federal office building without the courthouses.
The federal building contains the National Centers for Environmental Information, the FBI and the IRS, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.
It’s also home to Sen. Ted Budd’s Asheville office.
Asheville’s courthouse falls in the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The western district serves 32 counties with courthouses in Charlotte, Asheville, Hickory and Statesville.
The district had 1,652 pending cases as of Dec. 31, according to court records.
Katherine Hord Simon, the clerk of court for the district, did not respond to a message left with her staff for comment on this article.
Raleigh building
A third building listed on the GSA website appeared at first glance to be the courthouse in Raleigh. It’s not.
It’s actually a 6,215-square-foot building behind the courthouse that was once a vehicle maintenance building.
Selling the building could have complications: It is essentially an island surrounded by active federal property used by court officials to park their vehicles.
Other sales
GSA wasn’t the only government agency to raise questions last week about the future of government offices in North Carolina.
The Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, listed 20 federal leases across the state it terminated to save money.
DOGE is run by billionaire Elon Musk, according to President Donald Trump, and was created to cut down on wasteful spending. Decisions by the agency, including mass firings of federal workers, has drawn ire
against the Trump administration and some quick reversal decisions.
Musk’s department ended the leases of multiple Social Security offices, the Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Greensboro, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Greensboro, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Raleigh and the Farm Service Agency in Hendersonville, among other things.
Over the weekend, people gathered outside the federal courthouse in Raleigh to protests the lease terminations of the Social Security offices.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM.
CORRECTION: Records indicate the building listed for sale in Asheville includes a federal office building, but not court facilities. A previous version of this article misstated the extent of property up for sale.
