Signs of growth: Doubling Fort Lee’s size by 2013
Alexa Welch Edlund/Times-Dispatch
Fort Lee’s Ordnance School’s Central Campus is among the projects under construction.
Published: April 24, 2009
Updated: April 24, 2009
FORT LEE -- By the time expansion projects at Fort Lee are finished in 2013, the size of Army post in the heart of the Tri-Cities will have doubled.
The fort will have 14 million to 15 million square feet of space housing Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine and Navy operations, schools and personnel.
"In essence, we are building a whole'nother Fort Lee," Fritz Brandt, project manager with the Fort Lee Base Realignment and Closure construction office, said during a tour of the grounds yesterday.
The tour, with 40 participants, was arranged by the Fort Lee Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Directorate for members of the Hopewell-Prince George Chamber of Commerce.
"I didn't realize everything that was going on out here," said Fred C. Morene, chairman of the Hopewell-based Ford Agency Inc., which specializes in real estate and insurance.
All culinary training for the military services will take place at Fort Lee. Training in logistics, ordnance, sustainability and vehicle recovery will happen here as well, Brandt said.
The tour provided the chamber members a glimpse of the activity at the fort, now teeming with construction workers, heavy equipment and construction trailers.
"So many people are riding by signs of stimulus and growth and they don't know what it is," said Leah Brantley, president of the Hopewell-Prince George chamber. "BRAC is such a positive and economic boost to the localities we represent."
Total BRAC construction investment is expected to be $1.2 billion. The post's daily population is expected to reach more than 35,500 by 2011, when most of the growth will occur. In 2005, the daily base population was 18,800.
Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or
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Reader Reactions
I am wondering why Hopewell has not done more for this. As all the tri- cities should benefit, Hopewell has a great deal to offer and the time is yesterday to begin to make Hopewell part of what should be an econmic uplift to the area. WAKE UP HOPEWELL! LETS SHARE IN THESE WONDEFUL DEVELOPMENTS AT A TIME WHEN OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY HAVE NO MEANS FOR IMPROVEMENT, LETS WAKE UP!
The City is actually a diamond in the rough. The base will fuel re-development in the City and literally transform Petersburg into a viable alternative for complete living to Coloniel Heights, Richmond, etc. The re-development of the Star facility, Brown and Williamson and other former warehouses into multi-use properties will lead the way. These projects will provide for high end housing, shopping, office and dining all within walking distance. An opportunity like this is offered nowhere else nearby. In five years you will not recognize Petersburg!!
Times may be tough for a lot of people and I have BEEN THERE. However, as a state, as a whole, Virginia’s proximity to DC is a distinct advantage. After all this investment in expanding Fort Lee, it would be highly unlikely the government would shut it down anytime in the forseeable future. Especially since 9-11, the Federal Government is ensuring that military help is only a few moments away from DC. Consider ourselves overall economically fortunate in comparison to others.
@ Voice - true there was a series on Channel 6 - Petersburg: A City Derailed and one of the segments interviewed Ft. Lee soldiers that mentioned that had moved to Colonial Heights because of P’Burg schools. The same story also, somewhat, unfairly made Rt. 36 look like a big porn shop by taking several pics of 2 adult book stores and making it look like the whole street was lined with them.
Clearly it was much more important to use the $4M bond to renovate a failed golf course which, according to the city’s own numbers will operate in the red for the first several years versus using money on Schools, Public Safety, road improvements, etc.
All of you should know that Petersburg is a hopeless city. It has no future. Economically it will remain depressed, regardless of any expansion of Fortlee.
McRedd, I agree with you on the potential of Petersburg, However, several months a go, a story on NBC-12’s Local News, reported that soldiers and their families being transferred to FT Lee refused to live in Petersburg, because of the poor public school system.
Unfortunately, the bottom-line for Petersburg as a whole is ... until they can greatly improve their Public School System, they’re a sitting dead in the water.
I would imagine some of the funds are coming from money that was budgeted for bases that were closed as part of BRAC.
The really sad thing for me as a resident of Petersburg is to see how the City leadership did not (has not seemed to) take a more pro-active role in trying to position the city to take advantage of the growth a la Prince George, Colonial Heights and Dinwiddie. Petersburg has SO much unrealized potential - it almost seems like the people who COULD do something to make it better DON’T want to - for whatever reason.
Where did the money come from? The Fort Lee expansion is part of a military realignment recommended by the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) that won Congressional approval in 2005.
The Tri-Cities region was economically depressed long before the recession came along, so this is, indeed, good news.
ramgrl- The money is coming from us, not U.S. You’re right about one thing, the U.S. will never be broke. The Feds will just print more money that will be worthless.
LOL Isn’t this the same base they tried to shut down a few years ago? As for the money…it came from tax payers, same as always. The U.S. can act like it’s broke but in all reality they have plenty of money.
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