Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

Dothan officials on Tuesday voted to join a handful of cities in southeastern Alabama to pay for a consultant to protect Fort Rucker’s interest in a future base closure round. The city commission approved spending $130,992 a year for three years for a consultant to lobby Army and Pentagon officials. “We want to be on offense rather than defense for this round of BRAC,” said Whit Armstrong, spokesman for Friends of Fort Rucker, reported the Dothan Eagle. The goal isn’t just to preserve the post’s programs but also to capture missions from other installations. Rucker is responsible for about 25,000 jobs in the local economy and about a $2 billion annual economic impact, according to the story.

Radioactive contamination at the former Navy base at Treasure Island is more widespread than previously reported, according to a new Navy report and other documents obtained by the Bay Citizen. A draft report completed by the Navy earlier this month acknowledges that the island, located in San Francisco Bay, was used in the 1940s to repair and scrap ships exposed to nuclear testing in the Pacific. One source was a nuclear training ship used at Treasure Island that had been intentionally immersed in radiation. The California Department of Public Health had asked for the report after discovering radioactive waste in unexpected locations …

The New Orleans Federal Alliance and the Algiers Development District are moving toward resolution of a dispute over management of the Federal City project, a public-private development located at the former Naval Support Activity New Orleans. Representatives from the two entities have made “significant progress” toward reaching a cooperative endeavor agreement addressing control of Federal City, according to a press release distributed last week by the Algiers board. An agreement is expected in two weeks …

While the realignment of a mission due to BRAC typically forces civilian workers to decide whether to move with their job or not, several hundred employees of the Army’s Communications-Electronics Command have kept their homes in central New Jersey and are commuting to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Some are making the four-hour, roundtrip commute daily while others return to New Jersey only for the weekend, reports the Baltimore Sun …

The Great Plains Development Authority on Wednesday signed the deed to take possession of 6,116 acres at the former Kansas Army Ammunition Plant, marking the official start of the effort for Labette County in southeast Kansas to convert the facility into the Great Plains Industrial Park. The LRA obtained the parcel under an economic development conveyance, which calls for the authority to make an upfront payment of $49,999 to the Army. The LRA will pay the balance of the $3.5 million purchase price over a period of 10 years through a revenue-sharing agreement with the Army …

An agreement among Charles County, Md., and two firms to develop a technology park outside of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division designed to enhance the facility’s military value has fallen apart, primarily due to faltering economic conditions. Beyond the “disintegration of real estate market fundamentals,” expectations about the number of BRAC-related jobs that would move to Indian Head did not come to fruition, said a spokeswoman for Corporate Office Properties Trust …

Filling space vacated by the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., is slow-going, but not as bad as commonly perceived, Michael Fascitelli, president and chief executive of Vornado Realty Trust, told investors last week. “Washington today is experiencing the perfect storm: BRAC, the GSA trying to be more efficient, a presidential election and a budget standoff creating uncertainty. But we expect that moderate growth and limited supply over the next several years will stabilize the market,” Fascitelli said, according to the Washington Post. Of the 2.4 million square feet of vacancies in Arlington slated to be created through the last round of base closures for Vornado’s Washington unit, Vornado/Charles E. Smith, the real estate investment trust has re-leased or begun redeveloping 818,000 square feet. But the new leases often require the firm to lower its rates significantly.

The LRA responsible for redeveloping the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Mass., is close to reaching agreement with the Weymouth school system over how much it will cost to enroll school-age children of residents at the SouthField reuse project. Weymouth, located about 15 miles south of Boston, is required to educate school-age children living at SouthField under legislation passed in 2008 but the South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp. must cover the cost …

A House panel held a field hearing this week at an empty federal courthouse in Miami to publicize their campaign to ease the process for the federal government to shed excess properties. The hearing — led by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) — was held at the 79-year-old Dyer Courthouse, which has been vacant since 2007 when a new courthouse was completed across the street. The 179,000-square-foot courthouse costs taxpayers $1.2 million a year to maintain …

The Army is looking at how eliminating about 80,000 soldiers by fiscal 2017 will affect major installations throughout the United States, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said this week during the assistant secretaries roundtable at the ADC 2012 Annual Conference. The service’s assessment of the potential environmental impacts of reducing its end-strength to 490,000 active-duty soldiers will be available for public review in the next couple months, she said. The analysis stems from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act …