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Base Reshuffling Opens Up Development Opportunities
 The first round of military base realignments and closures (BRACs) by the Department of Defense (DoD) since 1995 will open up opportunities for home builders to provide housing for families being transferred to new areas and to redevelop communities where bases are being closed, according to Lt. Gen. (Ret.) John B. “Skip” Hall of The SPECTRUM Group.
As in previous shifts by the Defense Department, there are winners like Ft. Bliss, Texas, which could gain 11,354 military and 147 civilian personnel, and losers like the Naval Submarine Base in New London, Conn., where a reduction of 7,098 military and 952 civilian jobs has been proposed. Click here for the details of DoD’s recommendations and the BRAC process.
In all, recommended closures, realignments and expansions will result in the movement of more than 200,000 military personnel and their families, Hall has reported. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission established by Congress now has just four months to review the proposed list and will forward its recommendations to the President for his transmission to the Congress.
Not specifically on the list are the hundreds of thousands of rental and for-sale housing units that will be needed for the troops, their families and contractor personnel, as well as local residents not directly involved with the military.
At bases receiving a major influx of personnel, the military services will increase privatized housing through the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI); click here for details. Communities will still be expected to provide approximately two-thirds of the housing needed by military families, and all of the housing required by the civilians.
Communities impacted by expansion or closure can receive planning and other assistance from the DoD Office of Economic Assistance (OEA). Once the BRAC list becomes final, OEA will provide grants and technical assistance to local redevelopment authorities (LRA’s) that are responding to the changes; click here for details.
Further information is available from The SPECTRUM Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm with extensive experience in all aspects of the BRAC process; or call John Hall at 703-683-4222.
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