Base housing upgrades set

Journal of Business, Aug 19, 2004 by Parish, Linn

Congress has earmarked $17.1 million for new housing at Fairchild Air Force Base.

The U.S. Air Force, however, is studying whether to have a private builder develop and remodel homes at the West Plains base through a process called family-housing privatization. If that method were used, a developer wouldn't be limited to spending $17.1 million on on-base housing.

With privatization, a builder develops or remodels, then owns and maintains housing on a military base. The military in turn leases those homes for its personnel and their families, says Lt. Col. Sal Nodiomian, a civil engineer at Fairchild. The Air Force retains ownership of the land on which the private builder constructs residences, but doesn't charge the developer for using the property.

The net number of homes at Fairchild is projected to decrease substantially regardless of whether the privatization process is used, with more old houses being torn down than new ones being built. Consequently, hundreds of military families likely will be looking for homes and rental units in the Spokane market soon.

The West Plains base expects to know some time next year whether housing privatization will be used there. If so, Nodjomian expects that the base would solicit bids from private contractors late next year. With such a schedule, construction likely would start in early 2006.

If the decision is made that privatization wouldn't pencil out, Fairchild would use the $17.1 million to remodel some of the base's current homes.

Nodjomian says, though, "I'm confident privatization is going to work here."

Builders vying for privatization work would submit proposals to build new homes, remodel existing ones, or some combination of the two. Most often, a mix of renovation and new construction is undertaken, and that's what Nodjomian says likely would happen at Fairchild.

Through such projects, a private contractor handles construction, infrastructure improvements, common-area improvements, and demolition of older homes-and determines how much needs to be spent on housing that would be attractive to military personnel.

Bases militarywide are working to improve living arrangements for their personnel while eliminating old, undesirable units, and privatization is a major part of that thrust, Nodjomian says.

In a letter penned for a recent edition of Air & Space Power military magazine, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper says, "Currently, we have privatized over 6,000 units, and have a very high rate of resident satisfaction. Over the next three years, we plan to privatize a total of 45,000 units."

About 1,100 homes-mostly singlefamily homes with some in duplexescurrently are located on base at Fairchild. They range in size from 1, 100 square feet to 1,900 square feet of floor space and in age from four years old to 45 years old, Nodjomian says. Those homes remain fully occupied for the most part, he says.

That number doesn't include dormitories on campus, which house several hundred single airmen and airwomen.

The net number of homes on base is expected to decrease to 600 in the next few years.

In a housing requirement market analysis study conducted for Fairchild a couple of years ago, the U.S. Department of Defense determined that the Spokane community provides adequate, affordable housing options to military personnel and determined that only 600 homes are needed on base.

That means up to 500 additional military households would be required to find housing in the Spokane area.

C&L Development, a Spokane residential-development company headed by home builder Craig Condron, currently is developing a 247-lot residential subdivision called Sekani at Crosspointe, along U.S. 2 a few miles east of Fairchild. Condron, who also is president of Condron Construction Inc., says a large number of additional military households coming out into the market would be a welcome sight for area developers,

"It's a big factor for myself as a builder/developer and others in that surrounding area," he says. "It might give the West Plains a little bit of a kick start that it needs."

About 3,600 people are stationed at Fairchild, so a large number of military personnel there already live off base.

Nodjomian says military personnel can choose whether to live on base for free or to receive a monthly allowance for housing off base. The military refers to that as a basic allowance for housing, or BAH for short.

Increasing that basic allowance is another approach Congress has* taken to improving housing for military personnel. Nodjomian says that basic allowance has increased significantly during the past five years so that the" average military household is paying little or no money out of pocket for housing.

Currently, personnel in the lower enlisted ranks who choose to live off base typically receive between $500 and $600 a month for housing. That ranges upward to higher ranks that get $1,100 to $1,200 a, month, Nodjomian says. Each individual household determines how to spend that allowance.

According to a recent residential-rental survey published in Spokane-Kootenai Real Estate Research Committee's Real Estate Report, the average rent for a two-bedroom singlefamily rental home in the Spokane market is about $600 a month.