Posts Tagged ‘excess property’

The General Services Administration sold and transferred a 427-acre portion of the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant to Ramsey County, Minn., last week for $28 million. The deal transfers ownership of 397 acres to the county immediately, while the remaining 30 acres will be transferred after it conducts environmental remediation, which is expected to take approximately three years. Remediation and building demolition at the site currently is under way through a contract executed by the county …

The Defense Logistics Agency’s decision to move its operations from a depot located 60 miles east of Oakland could result in the closure of the 724-acre Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin – Sharpe. The agency plans to relinquish its permit to use the site in Lathrop, Calif., to the Army; the facility formerly had been known as the Sharpe Army Depot. DLA intends to shift its operations at the Sharpe site to nearby Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin – Tracy and possibly other agency facilities …

The Army is spending millions of dollars on installations that are “simply unusable” as the cost of upkeep for antiquated facilities climbs exorbitantly, Secretary John McHugh told reporters Tuesday. As the Army struggles to absorb deep spending cuts, eliminating unneeded installations would provide it with funds that could be used elsewhere. McHugh told reporters that he supports the Pentagon’s request to hold a BRAC round in 2015, reported the Hill. The secretary acknowledged the political perils that await anyone who supports another round of base closures and agreed that shuttering a large post could be harmful to the local economy. But the “highly effective use” of BRAC could generate a significant savings for DOD, he said.

A House Oversight subcommittee used the setting of a vacant warehouse in Southeast Washington less than a mile away from Capitol Hill on Thursday to hold the latest in a series of hearings highlighting the federal government’s slow pace in disposing of unneeded properties. The General Services Administration-owned warehouse has been empty since September 2009 and costs the government $70,000 a year to maintain. “It’s just a pattern of not being able to make decisions, and it’s remarkable given that we’re in the nation’s capital …

Funding constraints are causing the Air Force to curtail training for 13 fighter and bomber squadrons through the end of the fiscal year, but belt-tightening may help the Air Force reach one of its long-term goals, paring down its portfolio of bases. “It’s a significant forcing function,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday of one benefit of dealing with spending cuts …

One argument lawmakers have made to counter the administration’s request to hold a new BRAC round is that the Defense Department first should review its overseas infrastructure before scrutinizing its domestic real estate. The Army already is in the midst of an effort to consolidate its European footprint, points out Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment. The service is on pace to reduce its force structure in Europe by more than 45 percent by the end of 2016 …

One of about two dozen military command centers operated by North American Aerospace Defense Command during the Cold War is available to anyone interested in purchasing two windowless buildings in Cicero, N.Y. The SAGE — Semi-Automated Ground Environment — complex at the former Hancock Air Force Base has 175,000 square feet of space and is being offered for $895,000, reports the Post-Standard. The buildings — which have two-foot-thick reinforced concrete walls and one-foot-thick concrete floors — were originally used to track Soviet bombers and assign jets and missiles to intercept them. After the military closed the complex in 2001, the General Services Administration disposed of it. The property now is part of Hancock Airpark, an industrial park being developed by a local economic development entity.

The top officials for the Navy and Marine Corps told lawmakers Tuesday that they do not expect to cut much spare capacity if a new base closure round goes ahead in 2015. “We in the Navy have taken previous BRAC rounds very seriously,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the House Armed Services Committee. “We’ve shed most of our duplicative and overlapping bases and services …

At a House hearing Friday primarily focused on the Pentagon’s request to hold a round of base closures in 2015, lawmakers were not particularly vociferous in their opposition to BRAC, but the DOD witnesses still found themselves needing to convince a skeptical appropriations subcommittee about the rationale for a new round. In characterizing the extent to which the military has spare capacity at its installations, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, painted the most vivid portrait when she described her service’s reliance on attrition to trim its end strength by 80,000 soldiers by 2017 …

Holding a BRAC round isn’t the only strategy the Defense Department is pursuing to find savings from underused facilities. By the end of the year, officials expect to complete a plan that will recommend ways “to reduce underutilization” at military hospitals and clinics, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers Thursday during a hearing on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request …