In a prime section of downtown Chicago, sandwiched between a federal courthouse and Bank of America, pedestrians must walk under scaffolding to avoid chunks of terra cotta siding falling from a building that locals say is suffering “demolition by neglect.” The building at 202 S. State Street was acquired by the federal government in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a security buffer for the courthouse next door. But it then stood virtually vacant for two decades, with little effort to maintain or sell it after the immediate threat receded. That building is not an isolated case. Across the country, the federal government owns roughly 10,000 underused or vacant buildings, the product of decades of neglect, delay, and dysfunctional management. Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami – nearly every major city has an aging federal courthouse, warehouse, customs facility or office building that could be redeveloped into housing, retail space, or modernized office space.…