Projects aid Southside

The U.S. Army's expansion of Fort Lee is helping Virginia weather the financial storms.

"The entire economy of Southside Virginia rests on the back of Fort Lee," said James McNeer, a former Colonial Heights mayor and president of Richard Bland College near Petersburg.

In less than three years, Fort Lee will double its population and facilities.

"If you look two years down the road, in 2011, we think the economic impact [of Fort Lee on the region] will be about $1.1 billion per year," said Maj. Gen. James Chambers, commander of Fort Lee and the Combined Arms Support Command there.

The Prince George County installation is growing quickly and dramatically as a result of the U.S. military's 2005 base realignments and closures process.

Fort Lee's population -- soldiers, government employees, contractors and family members -- will grow to about 45,000 people by 2011, the installation says, with most of the growth occurring in 2009-2011.

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Fort Lee also is attracting large and medium-size defense contractors, such as Boeing's Tapestry Solutions subsidiary, Northrop Grumman and Prince George-based Logistics Management Resources Inc., to open operations in the region.

"Boeing's at Fort Lee because . . . that's where the customer is," Boeing's Chris Haddox explained.

With major Army and Defense Department functions being consolidated at the Army post, Fort Lee is becoming, as Chambers put it, "the Emerald City for logistics."

As a result, Fort Lee will see nearly $1.2 billion and more than 7.5 million square feet in construction by 2013.

The Army post anticipates even more construction after 2011, such as barracks, training facilities, unit headquarters, motor pools, child-development centers, fitness centers, chapels, clinic expansion and firehouses.

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Ninety percent of Fort Lee's work force resides in six surrounding localities, said Dennis Morris, executive director of the Crater Planning District Commission. They are Prince George, Chesterfield and Dinwiddie counties and the cities of Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights.

And "they also are significant customers for all the retail businesses just outside the gate," said Becky McDonough, the Hopewell-Prince George Chamber of Commerce's executive director.

The fort buys floor coverings, window treatments, paint and maintenance supplies from Palmore Decorating Center in Petersburg.

"It's invaluable," company owner Bryant Palmore said of the Army post's importance to the local economy. "It's a part of all our businesses here in town."

William Barrett Jr. of BRL Roofing in Midlothian is a retired Army officer whose company is putting roofs on several of the fort's major new buildings.

"Fort Lee is my business," Barrett said. "It's the driving force for me in a successful year."

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .