Arnold Air Force Base families could hear new housing plan details soon

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  As negotiations continue for a private company to take over housing at Arnold AFB and three other bases in the Southeast, Arnold's housing manager says he expects they will meet with families soon to discuss how the change will affect them.

"A town hall meeting is planned in mid-March, pending finalization of the developer's plans," said AEDC Housing Manager Mark Anderson.

In August the Air Force announced it had chosen Forest City Military Communities, LLC to privatize housing at Arnold, as well as at Keesler AFB in Mississippi and Charleston and Shaw Air Force bases in South Carolina. Since then, all parties involved have been negotiating the agreement.

"Over the past several months, we have been working diligently with our Air Force partners towards the transfer of privatized housing assets for the Southern Group Air Force [project]," said John Ehle, Forest City Military Communities senior vice president. "This is a rather complex process in which delays can arise, as has been the case with other privatized housing projects. We want to be sure the transfer is as seamless as possible as we look forward to enhancing the quality of life for the military families we will serve for years to come."

There are many aspects of both property management and initial development that have to be ironed out, Anderson said. He says he personally speaks with Forest City representatives two or three times a week and also keeps in touch with the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, which was in charge of the solicitation process and is still involved in the negotiations.

Anderson says the biggest benefit of privatization is that Arnold will get new houses for families, a goal that has been difficult to achieve until now.

"We've been trying to do a MILCON (military construction) replacement project to get new houses for several years now," Anderson said. "We've been close to getting a construction project awarded several times, but we lost the funding."

The plan under the deal would have Forest City demolish the 40 existing housing units on base - which were built in 1965 - and replace them with 22 new units over the next two and a half years. Anderson says several families will have to be relocated during demolition and construction, but the end result will be much nicer housing.

"I think the new houses will go a long way toward taking care of our military families," he said. "Even the smallest house for a junior NCO has a two-car garage. Right now, we have no garages. Even the smallest houses are about 200 square feet bigger than the current houses. Plus there are only six duplex units, and the rest are single-family homes versus the four-plex townhouses that we have today."

The housing deal involving all four bases is valued at $270 million in development costs. Under the deal, Forest City will lease a combined total of 846 acres from the Air Force and take over 2,387 existing housing units.

Forest City Military Communities, LLC is a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises. The company's military portfolio includes approximately 12,000 homes for the armed forces in nine states, including the U.S. Air Force Military Academy.