Downtown Hilo post office could close or be sold by Trump Administration

A historic building in Hilo is on the chopping block by the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which could result in the closure of the Downtown Hilo post office.

Pacific Business Journal reports the General Services Administration published a list Tuesday on its website of more than 440 non-core federal properties it could close or sell. The list includes the historice Federal Building located at at 154 Waiānuenue Ave.

“We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,” said the [General Services Administration] on its website. “Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces.”

The agency says disposing of the assets will help eliminate costly maintenance and allows the government to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.

Hundreds of buildings throughout the nation as well as on Guam and Puerto Rico are among those listed as non-core properties.

The list even includes such iconic Washington, D.C., buildings as the FBI headquarters, also known as the J. Edgar Hoover Building; the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building; and the Old Post Office building that once was a Trump hotel.

The Hilo Federal Building was designed by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s brother-in-law architect Henry Whitfield in the Mediterranean Renaissance Revival style.

It was one of the first buildings in Hawai‘i constructed with reinforced concrete.

Completed in 1917, the complex originally served as a courthouse, post office and custom house. Other tenants included the Immigration Bureau, Agricultural Extension Service, Weather Bureau and Internal Revenue Service.

The building now serves only as a post office.

Two wings were added in the 1930s, and Hawai‘i Island’s first passenger elevator was installed there in 1950. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The General Services Administration’s list of non-core properties is part of President Donald Trump’s effort to slash government spending.

Musk’s DOGE website listed three additional office leases in Hilo separately targeted for cancellation, with no addresses, on its website:

• A 1,427-square-foot Internal Revenue Service office.
• A 5,405-square-foot National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• A 10,731-square-foot U.S. Geological Survey office.

No other information about those locations was published.