The William H. Natcher Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse downtown was briefly identified among properties listed as “non-core” by the federal agency that oversees property and leases for the government, only for that list of designated properties to be removed from a federal website a day later.

Published reports said that the federal building was one of five Kentucky facilities, and more than 440 across the U.S., listed by the General Services Administration website Tuesday as not essential to government operations and subject to disposal, possibly through sale.

GSA issued a statement Tuesday in which it said non-core federally owned assets consisted primarily of office space, in contrast to core assets “needed for critical government operations,” including courthouses, land ports of entry and “facilities critical to our national defense and law enforcement.”

The GSA said then that “decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce.”

By Wednesday, that online list had been removed and it is not clear whether the properties that appeared on the list will be sold.

The GSA page now says a non-core property list is coming soon.

“We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,” a statement on the page said. “Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.”

Located at the corner of East Main Avenue and Center Street, the Natcher Building was constructed in 1912 as a U.S. Post Office and courthouse, and a one-story addition was built in 1941.

The postal service was moved out of the building in the 1960s.

Named for former U.S. Representative William H. Natcher, who represented Bowling Green for 41 years, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as part of the Downtown Commercial District.

On the GSA website, the building is described as a “good example of Renaissance Revival architecture. Interior details exhibit fine craftsmanship and represent the two periods of construction (1912 and 1941). It is a symbol of the federal presence in the community.”

A curved marble staircase is a prominent feature inside the building and is original to the 1912 construction.

The building houses courtrooms and judges’ chambers for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Bowling Green Division, office space for federal prosecutors in the Bowling Green division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, the clerk’s office for the local federal court system and the Bowling Green office of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Department of Government Efficiency, established by executive order on President Donald Trump’s first day of his current term and steered by billionaire Elon Musk, has set out to slash government spending and is overseeing federal workforce reduction efforts, largely through the termination of probationary employees at several federal agencies.

DOGE’s website lists an IRS office in Bowling Green as one of 748 U.S. locations where the lease has been terminated, part of what it touts as an estimated $105 billion saved through federal contract and grant terminations and real estate lease terminations.

However, Alex Nottmeier, a representative of Dominion Four, which handles the property, listed as an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center on Professional Park Court, said the company received a notice of termination of the lease last Tuesday, only to then receive a revocation of that prior notice two days later.

“I guess that’s sort of in limbo right now,” Nottmeier said, adding that the GSA has the rights to terminate the lease on the property at the end of the year. “I would expect that we may get another notice of termination as we approach the end of the year … we hope for the citizens that utilize the taxpayer assistance office that it remains open for them and that maybe the termination of lease we received was a little premature.”

The DOGE list of terminated leases mentions the Bowling Green IRS property is 7,564 square feet and carries a lease of $199,239.