Military Might: BRAC Plan Transforms Economy
Published Mar 05, 2009
Construction is in high gear at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where some $2.3 billion in projects is transforming the base.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure process has sparked a building boom throughout the Alamo Area, as major new projects come out of the ground and existing facilities are renovated and upgraded in preparation for new tenants.
As of December 2008, almost $1.4 billion worth of BRAC-related contracts had been awarded, a figure that’s expected to top out around $2 billion as the San Antonio BRAC Program runs from now through 2011.
The BRAC reallocation of military resources is a huge boon to the region, as it will relocate multiple medical training, flight training, operational and administrative missions to San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston, Camp Bullis, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base.
San Antonio economic development officials peg the overall benefit of the military projects at $5.7 billion, with the potential to generate a total of 57,000 direct and spin-off jobs from 2006 through 2011.
In all, some 78 different projects and 6 million square feet of space are involved, everything from living quarters to clinics and hospitals, classrooms, lab space, training areas and offices.
Summer 2009 is expected to be a high point, when more than 2,000 workers will be laboring at various BRAC project sites, according to the Joint Program Management Office, the military service entity overseeing design and construction efforts of the San Antonio BRAC Program.
“We are substantially under way with the laboratory projects in the program, and we have buildings coming out of the ground at the medical education training campus,” says Randy Holman, who is spokesperson for the Joint Program office.
“The dormitories are under way, as is the administration facility, and the single-largest dining facility in the Department of Defense inventory is coming out of the ground,” he says.
That 80,000-square-foot dining hall can accommodate 4,800 individuals over three seatings for each meal, or 1,600 per seating.
That scale is indicative of the size and scope of the entire BRAC project, and is a clear indicator of how much the influx of people is going to affect the area’s economy.
“By the end of fiscal 2008, we had awarded one-third of our contracts to contractors that have headquarters or regional offices in San Antonio,” Holman says. “One-fifth of those had a small-business designation, which we’re reasonably proud of. And the companies that are coming into town to do the work are leaning heavily on the local and regional companies to help deliver on these projects, so the entire regional market is benefiting.”
A major component of the BRAC-related work will revolve around medical facilities. The two largest projects are the San Antonio Military Medical Center and the 1.9 million-square-foot Medical Education and Training Campus, which will train all medical enlisted personnel and be one of the largest facilities of its type in the world.
Then there’s the Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma Research, which will focus on improving the delivery of combat care, and other facilities that will, in all likelihood, spur private-sector development in the health sector.
As an early indicator of BRAC’s effect on the region, Holman points to the Toyota vehicle-assembly plant that opened in the area in 2003. That $1.2 billion investment, about half of the BRAC figure, created about 2,000 jobs.
The Toyota project, says Holman, “was, and is, a huge boon to the area, but the result of this program will produce facilities and housing to bring in about 12,000 people. That’s six times the amount of growth from an employment standpoint. There’s just a lot going on here.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Todd Bennett
Current Weather Conditions In San Antonio, TX (78217)
Partly Cloudy, and 46 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
