Posts Tagged ‘BRAC’

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 …

The state of Maryland has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete construction of a new station on a commuter rail line serving Aberdeen Proving Ground. About 8,200 new positions came to the proving ground as a result of BRAC 2005, bringing the installation’s workforce to 22,000. The grant will pay for converting the Edgewood, Md., station from a platform to a fully functioning MARC station …

At a press briefing during a visit to Fort Hood on Friday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said the Pentagon’s plan to eliminate up to 80,000 soldiers from the Army over the next five years would have a “relatively small” impact on the Central Texas post. “There will probably be some small decrement, but I expect that there will be small decrements across the entire Army at many installations …

In response to declining defense budgets and the possibility of new base closure rounds, the 21st Century Partnership, the community partner for Robins Air Force Base in Middle Georgia, voted last Thursday to shift to a president-CEO organizational structure. “Organizationally, we were missing opportunities to grow,” said Rick Goddard, the partnership’s senior advisor, reported the Warner Robins Patriot. “We needed a full-time leader to manage the efforts and needs of the organization on a day-to-day basis … and not on an advisory or part-time basis …

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 …

As DOD enters an extended period of belt-tightening, business leaders and local officials in the Quad Cities are fully aware that many of the commands at Rock Island Arsenal could be easily relocated to another installation. The arsenal lost what had been called the Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command to Detroit Arsenal due to BRAC 2005, and supporters know it could happen again, reported the Quad-City Times. “I think that all the government arsenals and depots are in for significant cuts that will impact both their workloads and workforces …

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 …

One drawback to converting the 178th Fighter Wing mission from flying the F-16, and running a flight school for the fighter aircraft, to a combined intelligence/reconnaissance mission is that the community surrounding the Springfield Air National Guard Base in west central Ohio no longer can see or hear the base’s new mission. “We want to share with the community what we’re doing,” said Col. Gregory Schnulo, commander of the 178th. “We just can’t right now.”

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 …