HARRISBURG — The Rendell administration wants to sell a high-rise state government office building in downtown Philadelphia — and possibly one in Pittsburgh — to save money by moving the operations into leased space.

Unloading the 18-story Philadelphia State Office Building could save the state about $52 million over the next two decades, said General Services Secretary James Creedon. It would require approval from the General Assembly.

"We're now at the point where we're going to be seeking legislation to allow us to sell it," Creedon said Thursday. "I'd love to have it before (lawmakers) leave for the summer."

The building is located in the district of Democratic Rep. Babette Josephs, who said Friday she was inclined to support the plan.

"So far, I would say, I think it is a good idea," she said. "I have only heard from the administration so far, of course, so that's a little qualified."

The building at Broad and Spring Garden streets houses about 1,000 state workers and 18 agencies, including Conservation and Natural Resources, Education, Insurance, Labor and Industry and Public Welfare.

Officials are in the "very, very preliminary" stage of examining whether to also sell the 16-story Pittsburgh State Office Building, Creedon said.

"It looks like the model will work out there as well, where we can get some savings, put the property back on the tax rolls," he said.

About 920 people work in the Pittsburgh building on Liberty Avenue, which was built in 1955. The evaluation process for the Pittsburgh building, which has about 200,000 square feet of usable space, is about 10 months behind the Philadelphia project, Creedon said.

The Philadelphia building, built in 1958, contains about 240,000 square feet of usable space and has both surface and underground parking.

The state has already begun to study how to move all the agencies in the building to a single site in downtown Philadelphia. State officials met with unions on Wednesday to notify them of the proposal.

Creedon declined to say how much experts have suggested the Philadelphia building, which stands at the northern edge of Center City, would be worth in the current real estate market.

"I'm not going to bid against myself," he said. "It's worth a substantial sum of money."