A lease termination from the federal government for a local IRS office was rescinded just days after an initial termination notice was issued.

As of Friday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) still lists the roughly 14,000-square-foot IRS office in The Randall Building at Burnt Mill Business Park as a terminated lease. However, Steve Hall, vice president at BlueCoast Commercial and a broker for the building at 3340 Jaeckle Drive, said that after receiving a notice of the lease termination, he received a second notice rescinding it. 

“I wonder if that was just a knee-jerk reaction and went out on a mass mailer, and it should not have gone out that way,” he said, “but they rescinded that termination for us.”

The IRS office is one of two federal leases in Wilmington listed as terminated by the government's new cost-cutting initiative. The local leases are among the nearly 750 DOGE officials say they have terminated nationwide, which total more than 9.5 million square feet, and, according to DOGE, have resulted in around $468 million in lease savings. 

According to a February real estate inventory from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the IRS office lease expires in June 2026. In addition to 14,165 square feet, the lease also includes 50 parking spaces. Hall said the building was constructed specifically to house the IRS office.

“Certain government entities, they have certain requirements that you have to build by,” he said, “and it's not very often that you can find the building that meets those requirements, so that one was constructed for that tenant.”

According to Hall, the IRS occupies about a third of the building’s office space. The DOGE listing states that the canceled lease costs more than $319,000 annually and could have resulted in nearly $240,000 in savings.

The second local lease listed as terminated is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lease for a roughly 4,300-square-foot space at 68 Darlington Ave. The building is across the street from the local Army Corps headquarters at 68 Darlington Ave. The Army Corps previously used the building as a warehouse, according to Army Corps Public Affairs Specialist Jed Cayton.

The Army Corps of Engineers was already in the process of moving out when the lease termination notice was issued, Cayton said.

“We were already close to being final on a process to vacate that building and terminate the lease,” Cayton wrote in an email to the Business Journal. “Our original lease was due to terminate in May of 2026. We had no intentions of renewing that lease. Therefore, approximately one year ago, we began taking steps to vacate that building.”

According to the GSA inventory, the lease has an annual cost of just over $53,000. The lease began in 2017, and the lease termination will result in nearly $84,000 in total savings, according to the DOGE listing.

Last summer, the Wilmington City Council authorized leasing just over 7,900 square feet on the fifth floor of the city’s office building at 115 N. Third St. to the GSA. The lease proposal also included 28 parking spaces on the top floor of a parking deck at 114 N. Second St.

That lease is currently under final review, and city leaders haven’t been notified of any changes to it, said Lauren Edwards, a communications manager with the city.

“We have received no indication of any change in course on that lease,” she wrote in an email to the Business Journal.

The federal government has 14 active leases in New Hanover County, ranging in size from 1,400 to nearly 52,000 square feet, according to the latest GSA inventory.