Posts Tagged ‘base redevelopment/environmental cleanup’

Vornado/Charles E. Smith, the Northern Virginia developer rocked by the relocation of thousands of defense workers from leased space in Arlington, Va., is bouncing back after reaching deals with two tenants to fill available space. Anser Analytic Services, a nonprofit serving DOD, will occupy about one-fifth of a 400,000 square-foot building in Bailey’s Crossroads that was left without a tenant after the Defense Information Systems Agency left for Fort Meade, Md., as a result of BRAC, reports the Washington Post. In a separate deal, defense contractor DRS Technologies is moving its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to space in a Crystal City property where it already has offices.

Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Force official responsible for BRAC, enhanced use leasing, privatization, sustainability and other real property issues since October 2007, has been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, environment, logistics and energy. Ferguson will assume her new post after Debra Tune, the current principal deputy assistant secretary, retires from the Air Force in September. A decision on who will replace Ferguson as deputy assistant secretary for installations has not yet been announced …

L. Jerry Hansen, who had served as the Army’s number two official in the office of the assistant secretary for installations, energy and the environment, retired from the Army last month. In Hansen’s place is J. Randall Robinson, who has been the office’s acting principal deputy since June 1. Robinson previously held a series of management and staff positions with the Army’s Installation Management Command and its predecessor …

The implementation LRA for the former Naval Air Station Willow Grove will look very much like the entity that led the effort to forge a reuse plan for the 861-acre site, as the Horsham Township Council on Monday appointed four current members of the LRA to the new authority. The council’s president was the one new member appointed to the authority that will carry out a plan that calls for a mix of uses, including a town center, neighborhoods with a variety of housing types, office and business parks, areas for recreation and parks, and other uses …

Brunswick Landing, the reuse project at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine, plans to become an R&D center for renewable energy, complete with on-site power generation and a self-contained electrical grid. The closed-loop electricity delivery system left behind by the Navy paves the way for the project to generate its own electricity and share the savings from lower-cost power with tenants. “This isn’t sexy stuff. But it could become a major advantage,” said Steve Levesque …

The Oakland City Council on Tuesday approved an $830 million agreement to turn the former Oakland Army Base into a shipping and distribution facility that would serve the Port of Oakland, narrowly beating a deadline to keep a $242 million state grant. The redevelopment plan, in which the first phase will cost $484 million, will improve the ability of the port to move cargo and increase its capacity. Until Tuesday’s vote, the fate of the project was uncertain as the redevelopment engendered opposition from community groups and some city officials over various loopholes in provisions establishing hiring preferences for Oakland residents …

The Presidio Parkway Project, which will provide a series of upgrades to the highway connecting San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge, will be financed through a public-private partnership, the California Department of Transportation announced last week. Caltrans, in cooperation with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, closed on financing for the $1.1 billion deal last week. The deal with a private European consortium will be the first transportation public-private partnership in California under a 2009 state law …

This Tuesday’s vote by the Oakland City Council on an $830 million plan to turn the former Oakland Army Base into a warehousing and logistics center serving the nearby port may be the city’s last prime opportunity to revitalize the site closed more than a decade ago. The development team of Prologis and Oakland-based California Capital & Investment Group has agreed to build the project with union labor, give hiring preferences to Oakland residents and establish a jobs center in West Oakland, but city and community groups are pushing for more concessions …

Businesses that make their living recycling products that otherwise would be thrown away or destroyed are thriving at closed Air Force bases in California. At the former Norton AFB in San Bernardino, reRubber turns worn tires into crumbs for gym or playground floors, or powder for conversion into sealing and coating products for roofs, garage floors, driveways and as a puncture preventive in tires, reports the Air Force Real Property Agency. While crumbs are shipped to manufacturers, a new factory at Norton will convert the powder into sealant products …

Washington, D.C., residents were surprised to find out just how quickly redevelopment of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center is progressing during a meeting this week with a city planning official. The city will begin shortly to look for a master developer and hopes to reach an agreement with a firm before the end of the year, according to D.C. real estate blog urbanturf.com. The city then will negotiate a deal with the Army to obtain the 67.5 acres at the hospital campus designated for local redevelopment …