GSA & Federal Properties Summit

After 25 years of federal service in Congress and the executive branch, Dan founded Mathews Associates LLC in 2021 as a strategic consulting and business development firm. He helps his clients navigate the highest levels of Washington and the complex world of federal real estate and government procurements to expand their revenue, identify new partners and enter new markets. In 2024, President Biden appointed Mathews to the Public Buildings Reform Board, which is tasked with making recommendations to realign the federal real estate portfolio. He also serves on the Industry Advisory Group of the US State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. In addition, Mathews is a board member of both the Federal Real Property Association and the National Federal Development Association. He has extensive experience with federal real estate issues and served as Commissioner of the US General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service, where he led the 375 million square foot civilian real estate portfolio of the federal government, over 5,000 employees, and a $12 billion budget. Mathews graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in government and philosophy. He is married, has two daughters, and resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Darren J. Blue rejoined the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in May of 2017, returning from the Veterans Administration (VA), as the Public Buildings Service’s (PBS) Regional Commissioner for the National Capital Region (NCR). Managing one fourth of the federal work space for the country and generating more than one third of PBS’ revenue, NCR is GSA’s largest operational organization. This is Mr. Blue’s second time holding this position having previously served as the NCR Regional Commissioner from 2013-2015. During his time at the VA, Mr. Blue was responsible for enhancing Veterans’ access to healthcare and benefit services by leading all VA land and real property interests, including: the acquisition of land, major leasing actions, property disposal and establishing an infrastructure for private-public partnerships. Mr. Blue previously served as GSA’s Associate Administrator for Emergency Response and Recovery, where he was responsible for organizing agency resources into a central office that provides direct support to first responders, emergency workers and recovery teams during presidentially declared disasters and continuity of government events. In addition to his regular duties at GSA, Mr. Blue also supported the Presidential Transition Support Team in 2008 and led government-wide preparations for the possible Presidential Transition in 2012. Earlier in his career, Mr. Blue held a number of assignments in the national contingency community, including Deputy Director for Continuity and Crisis Management within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Emergency Preparedness Branch Chief within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Prior to beginning his civilian career, the Blue served on active duty for nine years in the U.S. Army in a variety of Infantry, Special Operations and Intelligence assignments. Mr. Blue holds a Masters of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces and a Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies from George Mason University.

Robert “Bob” C. MacKichan Jr. is a partner in Holland & Knight’s Washington, D.C., office and is the leader of the firm’s GSA Leasing and Federal Real Estate Team within the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice. His multifaceted practice involves decades of experience in litigation, government contracts, real estate and public policy issues associated with federal government real estate. Clients call on him for his substantive knowledge and extensive relationships in D.C. to handle government real estate disputes, government contract concerns, government lease procurement and administration, real estate acquisition and disposition, and government construction and administration. In addition, he advises clients on holdovers and condemnations, the competitive procurement process and disputes under the Contract Disputes Act. Mr. MacKichan primarily represents building owners, real estate developers, REITs and asset managers nationwide in matters relating to federal real estate disputes. He previously served as general counsel of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), where his work included the authorization for the construction of the International Cultural and Trade Center Building (now named the Ronald Reagan Federal Building) in Washington, D.C., as well as the utilization of public bond financing for several GSA projects.

Mr. Lee is a Managing Director of Lincoln Property Company (Lincoln) overseeing the Government Services Group in their Washington, D.C. regional office. In this position, he is responsible for managing all GSA lease transactions throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. In leading the Government Services Group, his additional role will be to seek out opportunities nationally in the federal leasing arena while collaborating with other Lincoln offices to pursue such endeavors. Jae brings more than 20 years of federal real estate experience to Lincoln. Prior to joining the team, he has accumulated 18 years of federal and commercial leasing expertise at Spaulding & Slye and Staubach, both of which subsequently merged with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). Over the collective 20+ years, he has successfully procured and leased over ten (10) million square feet of office space for the federal government. Formerly a Managing Director in the Public Institutions group in JLL’s Washington, D.C. office for 12 years, he supported the National Broker Contract (NBC) for the General Services Administration (GSA) as the Program Manager Alternate. He was responsible for managing all GSA lease transactions throughout the nation from Region 1 through Region 11. Jae also served as an Associate Director for JLL’s Government Investor Services group where he worked on the acquisition, leasing, planning, development, management and disposition of federal realty. Prior to JLL, Mr. Lee served as a Vice President and the National Program Manager for The Staubach Company on the GSA NBC. In this capacity, he gained experience in the full range of federal government real estate, with work involving site orientation and selection, market analysis, valuation methodologies, construction management and lease negotiations. Furthermore, he gained real estate finance, marketing and asset underwriting as an Associate with RER.

Marcy Owens Test heads the CBRE Federal Lessor Advisory Group. She is a federal government expert in commercial real estate space with more than 30 years of experience. Her strength lies in managing large and complex projects on behalf of owners and investors and her success is tied to a high-level attention to detail. From her years as a GSA Contracting Officer, she has a compelling network of relationships and unmatched insight into how federal real estate transactions are executed. She is sought out by many for technical knowledge in all aspects impacting Federal real estate including market trends, investment sales, due diligence, Federal lease construction, lease administration, leasing and relationship management.

Holly Briggs is Managing Principal for the Washington, DC office of IA Interior Architects (IA), a global architectural firm focused exclusively on the practice of interiors. In this role she provides leadership and design direction to deliver high performance workplaces for the firm’s top clients. Holly has designed state-of-the-art office facilities for some of the country’s most prestigious corporations, financial institutions, technology companies, and federal agencies, including McCormick, Capital One, Amazon, SAP, and Red Hat. Her extensive experience working with the federal government is demonstrated by IA’s portfolio of work with 50 agencies totaling over 25 million square feet of space, including DHS’ headquarters at St Elizabeths campus, NIH’s Rockledge campus, and USAID’s headquarters. She is currently working on two landlord-led federal projects for USCIS and the consolidation of CBP’s Office of Information and Technology. IA has also completed Program of Requirements (PORs) for 25 agencies totaling over 15 million square feet, including SEC, DOL, and BEP. Prior to joining IA, Holly also led two GSA Design Excellence projects—DOT’s headquarters and USCG’s headquarters and St. Elizabeths campus. Throughout her career, Holly has executed increasingly complex assignments and directed multi-disciplinary professional teams. As an expert in workplace design issues, she has been recognized for her innovative design and workplace solutions through numerous awards and publications, including with CoreNet Mid-Atlantic, IIDA Mid-Atlantic, multiple NAIOP and AIA chapters, Interior Design magazine, Metropolis, Architect, and Interiors & Sources. Additionally, Holly has published articles and spoken on panels regarding technical, organizational, and functional issues affecting future trends in interior architecture for Bisnow and CREW, to name a few. Holly is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and has served on the Board of Directors for the Commercial Real Estate Women’s Washington, DC Chapter (CREW).

Kurt Stout leads the Colliers Government Solutions national practice group, overseeing its platform services including leasing, investment sales, property management and project management. He is an active member of the government real estate community and recognized as a national expert on government real estate matters, especially relating to the federal sector. His particular area of expertise is federal leasing where he has managed complex transactions nationwide, with recent examples including representation of: Embarcadero Capital Partners in a 154,000 RSF lease for the FAA Western-Pacific Regional Office; Carr Properties in the 314,000 RSF lease restructuring and extension of the Office of Naval Research, and; a variety of GSA transactions totaling 474,000 RSF representing The Meridian Group allowing for stabilization and partial redevelopment of a 2-building project in Washington, DC. Prior experience includes representation of government agencies as tenant representative. In that capacity, Kurt has led or co-led national accounts representing the US Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Additionally, he has participated in consulting projects for the US General Services Administration and other agencies related to portfolio planning and policy development. He serves as an editorial board member of the Government Real Estate Journal and is a speaker and active participant in events hosted by the National Federal Development Association and the Federal Real Property Association. Kurt is a graduate of Trinity College.

Andrew Abramson serves as the Vice President, GSA Leasing, of JBG SMITH. Mr. Abramson is responsible for leasing JBG SMITH’s government portfolio, consisting of approximately 2.7M RSF. Prior to joining Vornado/Charles E. Smith, he served as a Senior Vice President and founder of the Government Services Group at Grubb & Ellis. Mr. Abramson received his B.S. from American University and M.B.A. in Real Estate from George Washington University.

Matt Lynch is managing director of Transwestern's Government Services Group in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for marketing and leasing commercial space to federal, state and local government entities. Matt has over 15 years of experience as an attorney and real estate broker. Prior to joining Transwestern in 2012, he was part of the Federal Practice Group at Cushman & Wakefield an d previously worked for the General Services Administration (GSA) for 10 years. During his time at GSA, Matt managed the agency's real estate procurement platform, the Advanced Acquisition Program (AAP), and oversaw its transition to the web-based system used today, the Automated Advanced Acquisit ion Program (AAAP). He was involved in some of the highest priority lease projects, including the Department of Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Commission to Investigate the Gulf Oil Spill, and the Recovery Ac t Transparency and Accountability Board. He continues to maintain close professional contacts with key GSA decision-makers and leverages this mutual professional respect on behalf of clients. During his time at GSA, Matt represented the federal government in over 150 leasing transactions totaling over 5 million square feet in the Washington, D.C., area. Some of Matt's clients have included the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Scott Johnston joined Cushman & Wakefield’s Government Services Group in 2016, with over 26 years of real estate experience with the Federal Government. In this capacity, Scott specializes in representing owner’s interest in federal tenancy as well as assist in their acquisition/disposition/financing of federally tenanted assets nationally. Scott has negotiated and consummated leases valued in excess of $8 billion and totaling in excess of 18 million square feet and sales in excess of $2 billion, in real estate transactions with the Federal Government. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Scott was a Principal with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank where he headed the Government Investor Services team. Preceding that, Scott was with Jones Lang LaSalle/Spaulding & Slye where he was the team leader for the group that was awarded the first outside brokerage contract to represent the GSA in its search, negotiations and procurement of space for federal agencies.

Joseph B. Brennan is a Corporate Regional Director of JLL. Joe serves as the Managing Director of the firm’s national Government Investor Services (GIS) practice, headquartered in Washington, DC. The JLL GIS practice is the largest of its kind and has successfully completed over 4,000 individual transactions for government agencies and private sector owners of real estate. Joe provides leadership to the GIS team in the areas of strategy and transaction implementation to investors in the federal sector. The process, politics and strategy associated with federal real estate present complex challenges for investors, and his team is uniquely skilled to successfully advise Jll's clients in the federal real estate arena. Specialties: Leasing, Investment Sales, Financing, and Build-to-suits in the Government Sector Years of experience 20+ years Experience: Senior Vice President of Brokerage, Spaulding and Slye, Washington, DC Staff Assistant to the President, Office of Presidential Advance, The White House, Washington, DC Key transactions United States Department of Defense, The Pentagon: Developed and implemented an immediate 1,000,000 square foot relocation of Pentagon employees immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks. The United States Department of State: Development and implemented numerous significant transactions with the United States department of State, with various institutional owners. The United States Army: Advised the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the implementation of the Enhanced Use Lease (EUL) program on a national basis. United States General Services Administration: Developed and implemented a dual award of leases in Arlington, VA on behalf of the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of State. National Transportation Safety Board NTSB: developed and implemented an award of the headquarters lease and conference facility in Washington, DC. United States Transportation Security Administration TSA: Engineered the lease award for the TSA headquarters facility in Arlington, Virginia. Education Loyola College, Bachelor of Business Administration, Baltimore, MD Affiliations: The Association of Defense Communities (ADC) – Member; The City of Alexandria, Mayors BRAC Advisory Board – Board Member; The Eisenhower Partnership – Board Member; The Federal Real Property Association (FRPA) – Member; National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) – Member; Urban Land Institute (ULI) – Member; Georgetown University, Kennedy School of Ethics- Sponsor of the annual “Brennan Lecture” focusing on business ethics.

Jon S. Bouker, co-practice group leader of the firm’s Government Relations practice, brings to Arent Fox extensive experience in the US Congress, which he puts to work serving clients on a wide variety of general business and government relations matters. Jon represents clients before Congress, the White House and federal agencies (particularly the General Services Administration), the government of the District of Columbia, and surrounding counties. Jon also is the Co-Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee.