Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Facilities Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DMS outlines state facilities portfolio, billion-dollar construction workload and energy-saving efforts
Summary
Tom Berger of the Department of Management Services told the committee that DMS manages 112 bonded facilities totaling about 12.5 million square feet, oversees more than $1 billion in construction contracts, and has implemented energy conservation measures that produced measurable utility savings.
Tom Berger, representing the Department of Management Services, briefed the Appropriations Committee on the Florida Facilities Pool, the department’s facility-management and construction portfolio.
Berger said DMS manages 112 bonded facilities (primarily multi-tenant office buildings) that together total about 12.5 million square feet and that DMS oversees roughly 1,500 leases and 25,000 parking contracts statewide. He told senators that the division’s operating budget for the year is about $185.4 million and that the division manages about $13.5 million in vendor contracts and a construction workload exceeding $1 billion across roughly 300 projects.
Major capital and ongoing projects Berger described include the Capitol complex window replacements (completion of the tower windows scheduled after the legislative session, with work finishing in 2028), a near-complete HVAC replacement at the Capitol scheduled to finish in summer 2026, a new emergency operations center designed to withstand Category 5 winds, and an additional five-story office building and parking garage at the Capitol Center Office Complex in design. He also listed recent and planned projects for other agencies including veterans’ nursing homes, a Department of Juvenile Justice detention building, artifact storage for the Department of State and a second-district court of appeal building in Pinellas County.
On operations, Berger said DMS handles about 36,000 annual service calls (routine maintenance and repairs) and runs building automation and fire-safety programs. He described a project to transition building controls to an open-source automation system to reduce vendor lock-in and enable third-party integration; the project is about 25% complete.
Berger highlighted energy and water conservation results in recent years, noting multi-year reductions in electrical use and reporting specific savings figures the division tracks. He said the agency reduced energy consumption compared with earlier years and credited building-automation systems and other conservation measures for those savings.
Senators asked about lease templates, annual appropriation language in contracts, vacancy and space-utilization monitoring, and how leases account for future staffing changes. Berger said state leases follow a uniform template consistent with statute and include annual-appropriation language; he added that agencies must identify needs during the leasing process and DMS works with agencies to right-size space if programs expand or contract.
No committee votes or directives were recorded on the facilities briefing.
