Officials pitch six-year plan to upgrade Nellis housing

Jace Radke

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

More than 150 developers, contractors and service providers got their first look this week at a project designed to bring military housing at Nellis Air Force Base into the 21st century.

The base, where some of the homes are 40 years old, is planning to privatize more than 1,200 family housing units.

Nellis will provide land leases and possible loan guarantees and give up control over base housing in exchange for 1,433 new or refurbished homes it could otherwise not afford to build for the service members who work there.

It's a trend occurring at military bases across the country. Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are going through the same process, officials said. The hope is that better housing will help persuade service members to stay in uniform.

"Providing quality housing for our men and women in uniform and their families is critical to retention," said Col. Del Eulberg, 99th Air Base Wing commander. But he noted that Congress has provided the military with so little funding for housing in the past, that "it will be more than 50 years before we can modernize all of the housing on Nellis."

The plan base officials pitched to local developers Tuesday would get the job done in six years. The developers will be invited to bid on the project, targeted to begin next spring, said Peter Cooke, CEO of the Military Housing Co., one of four companies consulting with bases nationwide to privatize housing.

"This is a chance for the local or regional player to get involved with this project," Cooke said. "We want to get input from the private sector and see what they think of the plan."

The developer that gets the job will be expected to demolish 915 outdated units to make room for new apartments and homes, and to make improvements to another 363. Another 116 new units will be built near U.S. 95 and Ann Road for airmen who work at the Air Force's Indian Springs facility.

No resident is to be left without a place to live, Cooke said.

The developer will be required to have new units available to house families displaced when old units need to be torn down, he said. The plan calls for the base to have a 50-year contract with the developer.

The deal offers developers a built-in group of tenants, with base housing running at a 98 percent occupancy rate with an 11-month waiting list, Barbara Burnham, Nellis family housing manager said. In addition, rents would be paid through automatic payroll deductions.

If that doesn't keep the units full, the developer will be allowed to offer apartments to federal employees, retired military members, National Guard and Reserve members, retired federal workers, Defense Department contractor employees and, as a last resort, the public.

There are 7,140 active uniformed personnel stationed at Nellis and more than 22,000 military retirees in the Las Vegas Valley, officials said.

"Las Vegas and Henderson are among the fastest growing cities in the country, and our population of retirees is growing right along with that," Burnham said.

Military families living on base should see little change in their monthly costs.

They will be charged the same amount they receive for a housing allowance, minus expected utility costs. The rent will include trash, water and sewer service, as well as renter's insurance.