Shaffer
06-25-02, 08:21 AM
Facilities a joint effort of public, private sectors, Sue Sanchez has lived in military housing before, but her first look at the townhouse she'll move into at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station made quite an impression. "It's nice," she said. "It's a nice change." The Sanchezes are looking forward to saving about $400 monthly when they move from the Marrero apartment they are renting, said her husband, Marine Sgt. Danny Sanchez.
"We're pretty happy to get this," said Danny Sanchez, a Marine recruiter who transferred to the New Orleans area from Camp Pendleton, Calif., 14 months ago. In a military housing building spree that's being hailed as a coup for the quality of life of service members in the New Orleans area, the Sanchezes and their two daughters in about two weeks will be among the first military
families to move into new housing at the air station.
On Wednesday, the military will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the $73 million project. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones is expected to attend. The housing will help solve what the military says is a regional shortage of safe, affordable housing for junior enlisted personnel who struggle to make
ends meet on military pay. Almost 4,000 military positions are permanently assigned to the area. "In my view, this takes New Orleans from a not-such-a-great duty station to a premier duty station," said Cmdr. Jack Reape, executive officer of Fleet
Logistics Support Squadron 54 at the air station. He said he expects half of the 125 full-time reservists in his C-130 Hercules squadron to move into the new housing.
The project follows a military trend since the mid-1990s to turn to private business for services in an attempt to reduce costs. The Defense Department owns about 300,000 housing units, and about two thirds of them are considered substandard. The Navy owns or leases about 62,000 units worldwide, with about 23,000 considered inadequate. The Navy also says it has a housing shortage of about 10,000 units. New Orleans is one of the first places nationwide in which the Navy is trying to solve housing woes though a public-private venture. In July 2000, Patrician Development of Baton Rouge was selected to take over Navy housing in the New Orleans area. Louisiana Navy Family Housing, a company Patrician created in October 1999 and in which the Navy is a minority partner, will operate housing at the air station and Naval Support Activity for 50 years, at the end of which the housing will revert to the Navy.
The Navy says the venture allows it to better leverage its money: Private companies invest $3 for every $1 the Navy contributes. At the air station, the Navy is contributing $23 million to the $73 million project, according to the Navy's installations and facilities office. Alex Lewis, a principle in Patrician Development, said the program is "a wonderful deal for the government and a pretty good deal for the developer."
Immediate savings
Military families moving to the on-base housing will realize the savings immediately. The privatized housing program will let service members who live on base continue to get a basic housing allowance to cover rent and utilities only. The amount is based on factors such as rank and geographic location. In the
New Orleans area, for example, sergeants and petty officers second class with families get about $689 per month, according to the Navy. In Belle Chasse, the 525 units are expected to be completed by November 2003. When done, there will be more than 740 new family units at the air station, including 216 existing ones. Additionally, there are about 200 family homes at Naval Support Activity in Algiers. Gilmore Park, a military subdivision with 82 units in Algiers, will be sold. A recent study by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, found that service
members sought military housing to be close to work, have access to on-base amenities and be close to other military families, but the primary reason was the economic benefits, a factor that contributes to the high demand.
Jeannette Bryant, who manages air station housing, said there was an 18-month waiting list to get into the 216 existing units. But often, by the time a family gets closer to the top of the waiting list and an opening becomes available, the family is re-assigned to a new duty station. "There was such a need for housing here," she said.
Tax revenue
The Navy's housing boom coincides with Plaquemines Parish's residential boom. Plaquemines is near the end of a 15-month moratorium on new development in the northern end of the parish, which did not affect the Navy. It was enacted because of growth and substandard sewerage and drainage systems, infrastructure the Navy has used for the air station since the
1970s. To help alleviate Plaquemines' infrastructure woes, the Navy gave the parish an easement on air station ground in which to install a new sewer line, officials said. Patrician Development paid nearly $1.1 million to the parish to help offset the government's costs associated with private development, Lewis said.
Although the money will pay for the new sewer line, which will help the parish, it won't help the parish with its drainage problems, Plaquemines' President Bennie Rousselle said.
But Plaquemines and Orleans parishes will be able to collect property taxes on military bases in Belle Chasse and Algiers because the housing is privately owned. After they are built, the 525 new units at the air station will generate about $300,000 annually in property tax revenue for Plaquemines government,
Assessor Robert Gravolet said. The land, owned by the Navy, won't be taxed, he said.
The new units range from 1,300 square feet to 1,800 square feet. They have 9-foot ceilings on the first floor and living rooms trimmed with crown molding. Bathrooms and foyers will have ceramic tile floors, and some master bedrooms will have balconies. All units will have washer and dryer hook-ups. Each unit also will have a detached, enclosed garage and an extra parking space, and a private back yard will be accessible by a rear service drive. Single-level cottages will be built for families with disabled members. The streets in the air station housing area will be renamed after aircraft carriers, said Bryant, who calls the new housing the "ultimate gated community." The developer will build a community center, jogging path, baseball diamond, soccer field and basketball court.
Reape, the C-130 squadron executive officer, said the housing will benefit his unit in another area: recruiting. "They are as nice as any unit you'll find to rent," Reape said. "It helps us compete for people."
"We're pretty happy to get this," said Danny Sanchez, a Marine recruiter who transferred to the New Orleans area from Camp Pendleton, Calif., 14 months ago. In a military housing building spree that's being hailed as a coup for the quality of life of service members in the New Orleans area, the Sanchezes and their two daughters in about two weeks will be among the first military
families to move into new housing at the air station.
On Wednesday, the military will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the $73 million project. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones is expected to attend. The housing will help solve what the military says is a regional shortage of safe, affordable housing for junior enlisted personnel who struggle to make
ends meet on military pay. Almost 4,000 military positions are permanently assigned to the area. "In my view, this takes New Orleans from a not-such-a-great duty station to a premier duty station," said Cmdr. Jack Reape, executive officer of Fleet
Logistics Support Squadron 54 at the air station. He said he expects half of the 125 full-time reservists in his C-130 Hercules squadron to move into the new housing.
The project follows a military trend since the mid-1990s to turn to private business for services in an attempt to reduce costs. The Defense Department owns about 300,000 housing units, and about two thirds of them are considered substandard. The Navy owns or leases about 62,000 units worldwide, with about 23,000 considered inadequate. The Navy also says it has a housing shortage of about 10,000 units. New Orleans is one of the first places nationwide in which the Navy is trying to solve housing woes though a public-private venture. In July 2000, Patrician Development of Baton Rouge was selected to take over Navy housing in the New Orleans area. Louisiana Navy Family Housing, a company Patrician created in October 1999 and in which the Navy is a minority partner, will operate housing at the air station and Naval Support Activity for 50 years, at the end of which the housing will revert to the Navy.
The Navy says the venture allows it to better leverage its money: Private companies invest $3 for every $1 the Navy contributes. At the air station, the Navy is contributing $23 million to the $73 million project, according to the Navy's installations and facilities office. Alex Lewis, a principle in Patrician Development, said the program is "a wonderful deal for the government and a pretty good deal for the developer."
Immediate savings
Military families moving to the on-base housing will realize the savings immediately. The privatized housing program will let service members who live on base continue to get a basic housing allowance to cover rent and utilities only. The amount is based on factors such as rank and geographic location. In the
New Orleans area, for example, sergeants and petty officers second class with families get about $689 per month, according to the Navy. In Belle Chasse, the 525 units are expected to be completed by November 2003. When done, there will be more than 740 new family units at the air station, including 216 existing ones. Additionally, there are about 200 family homes at Naval Support Activity in Algiers. Gilmore Park, a military subdivision with 82 units in Algiers, will be sold. A recent study by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, found that service
members sought military housing to be close to work, have access to on-base amenities and be close to other military families, but the primary reason was the economic benefits, a factor that contributes to the high demand.
Jeannette Bryant, who manages air station housing, said there was an 18-month waiting list to get into the 216 existing units. But often, by the time a family gets closer to the top of the waiting list and an opening becomes available, the family is re-assigned to a new duty station. "There was such a need for housing here," she said.
Tax revenue
The Navy's housing boom coincides with Plaquemines Parish's residential boom. Plaquemines is near the end of a 15-month moratorium on new development in the northern end of the parish, which did not affect the Navy. It was enacted because of growth and substandard sewerage and drainage systems, infrastructure the Navy has used for the air station since the
1970s. To help alleviate Plaquemines' infrastructure woes, the Navy gave the parish an easement on air station ground in which to install a new sewer line, officials said. Patrician Development paid nearly $1.1 million to the parish to help offset the government's costs associated with private development, Lewis said.
Although the money will pay for the new sewer line, which will help the parish, it won't help the parish with its drainage problems, Plaquemines' President Bennie Rousselle said.
But Plaquemines and Orleans parishes will be able to collect property taxes on military bases in Belle Chasse and Algiers because the housing is privately owned. After they are built, the 525 new units at the air station will generate about $300,000 annually in property tax revenue for Plaquemines government,
Assessor Robert Gravolet said. The land, owned by the Navy, won't be taxed, he said.
The new units range from 1,300 square feet to 1,800 square feet. They have 9-foot ceilings on the first floor and living rooms trimmed with crown molding. Bathrooms and foyers will have ceramic tile floors, and some master bedrooms will have balconies. All units will have washer and dryer hook-ups. Each unit also will have a detached, enclosed garage and an extra parking space, and a private back yard will be accessible by a rear service drive. Single-level cottages will be built for families with disabled members. The streets in the air station housing area will be renamed after aircraft carriers, said Bryant, who calls the new housing the "ultimate gated community." The developer will build a community center, jogging path, baseball diamond, soccer field and basketball court.
Reape, the C-130 squadron executive officer, said the housing will benefit his unit in another area: recruiting. "They are as nice as any unit you'll find to rent," Reape said. "It helps us compete for people."