Kristi Noem hugely overpaid for a $145 million warehouse in one of her final acts at DHS, report says [View all]

Original reporting: The $97 Million Utah Warehouse ICE Bought for $145 Million (The Atlantic)

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Source: The Independent

Kristi Noem hugely overpaid for a $145 million warehouse in one of her final acts at DHS, report says

The tax-assessed value of the warehouse in 2025 was $97 million, according to new report

Ariana Baio
Tuesday 07 April 2026 19:00 BST

Before leaving her post as secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem purchased a massive warehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, for $145.4 million – more than half of its tax-assessed cost estimated, to be used for immigration detention, according to a report.

Seeking to expand immigration detention space, the department bought the 833,000-square-foot warehouse located roughly seven miles from the Great Salt Lake on March 11, days after President Donald Trump announced Noem’s departure.

Not only were local and state officials uninformed of the costly purchase before it was made, but the $145 million price tag was roughly 48 percent more than its 2025 tax-assessed value of $97 million, The Atlantic reported.

It’s unclear why the warehouse was purchased for so much more than its seeming value. One person familiar with the purchase told The Atlantic that the warehouse had previously been appraised at $130 million, still more than 30 percent more than it’s tax assessed value, and that the seller made $10 million in improvements.

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Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kristi-noem-warehouse-utah-b2953166.html

Alternate link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/kristi-noem-hugely-overpaid-145-180049621.html