Privatization efforts ahead of schedule, flourishing at Offutt

  • Published
  • By Ryan Hansen
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  With an average of more than 500 new or renovated homes entering the privatized housing inventory each month, the Air Force's goal of creating quality homes and thriving communities for Airmen and their families is well under way.

To highlight this effort, officials at the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment launched the "Home of the Blue" campaign. This initiative showcases how privatized housing is successfully accomplishing this goal.

Here at Offutt, the proof is in the pudding. Due to the tremendous teamwork between all of the partners involved in the privatization program here, it has become the Air Force example for other bases to follow.

"The Offutt team led the way in developing many of the processes, tools and templates used today in the AFCEE Design and Construction Oversight Handbook," said Ruth Rodriguez, chief of the housing flight for the 55th Civil Engineering Squadron. "This handbook helps establish consistent procedures across all Air Force projects for use in efficiently managing the (Military Housing Privatization Initiative) construction oversight program."

Since America First Communities assumed responsibility of base housing in September 2005, occupancy rates in Rising View have grown from 1,232 residents to 1,560.

"Things are going tremendously well," said Dora Stuch, director of property management for Rising View. "We're trying to build a sense of community for our families here and I think we're doing that."

To date 914 new homes have been built with more than 450 undergoing major renovations and an additional 200 going through minor renovations.

"We're two years ahead of schedule," Ms. Stuch said. "We're virtually done with new homes, we're on the last home that needs major renovations and we have about 10 homes left that need minor renovations."

Air Force officials began privatizing housing in 1998 as a way to improve the quality of life for Air Force families by improving the condition of their housing. At the time, the Air Force had 104,000 military housing units in its inventory, most of them built between 1948 and 1975. More than 40,000 units were considered inadequate.

"We went ahead and built far more new homes as opposed to renovating older ones here," said Kevin Hensel, chief communications officer for the Burlington Capital Group, the parent organization of America First Communities. "In the Air Force request for proposal (for Offutt) they asked for an end state of 1,444 homes and in our proposal we were able to submit 1,640 homes."

Visitors passing through Rising View will quickly notice that it isn't their parent's military housing.

"We've really raised the quality of life for our military members," Ms. Stuch said. "We're able to offer three-and four-bedroom homes with two-car garages that have wall-to-wall carpet, laminate floors, built-in microwaves, self-cleaning ovens, light fixtures and window coverings."

With construction and renovation work nearly complete, the Rising View staff is now focusing their efforts on building and enhancing a sense of community that may have been missing previously.

"We're not only building a physical community, but we're also trying to build a community within the community," Mr. Hensel said. "We want this to be a desirable place for our military families so they can be living among their peers and connected to those people."

Part of this effort includes the renovation or outright creation of "tot lots" and playgrounds throughout Rising View.

"When we took over there were only 14 playgrounds for 2,600 homes," Ms. Stuch said. "Now we have 61 playgrounds and approximately 15,000 linear feet of walking trails."

These areas not only include new playground equipment, but also basketball and sand volleyball courts, a dog park and a brand new soccer field at LeMay Elementary.

"The playground equipment is just amazing," Ms. Stuch said. "And with the new soccer field kids will have a facility right in Rising View where they can enjoy the outdoors like they should."

Another new addition to the community is The Point at Rising View. Scheduled to open in May, this 5,600 square-foot facility is designed for residents and other groups from around base to use for special events with a maximum capacity of 150 people.

"It's a brand new gathering point that residents can reserve at no cost," Ms. Stuch said. "Groups and clubs from base will be able to use it as well and it's perfect for families in Rising View to host birthday parties, scrapbooking, graduation, retirements or whatever."

"It's a great area that people will be able to come to, which is very similar to a clubhouse at an apartment complex," Mr. Hensel. "We're very excited about it."

Another reason for the success of the privatization efforts here is the fact that Rising View property managers are co-located with the military housing management office. This helps inbound Airmen and their families get all of their questions answered in one stop.

"Being co-located has enabled us to really understand each other's perspective," Mr. Hensel said. "Ideally we're all working towards the same goal and that's finding the military member and their family a place to live."

"From the resident's perspective, they may not understand what our office's responsibility is and what the Air Force's responsibility is," Ms. Stuch said. "So either way if they come in with a concern, we're both here and can help them and get them taken care of."

So far under the housing privatization initiative, approximately 38,000 units have been privatized at 44 bases. As more and more Air Force housing areas become privatized, the quality of life for Airmen and their families should continue to improve and thrive.

"I think we were all skeptics when it came to the privatization concept and somewhat leery of the new way of doing business for our military families desiring to live in privatized housing," Ms. Rodriguez said. "Privatization is the only way we are going to achieve quality homes for our military families in a relative short period of time and all should embrace this concept that finally has our military families living in attractive 'communities' with enhanced amenities for use by the children and entire family."

"With their access to resources, private developers can deliver a high quality product at a lower cost to the Air Force," said Kathleen Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics. "Together we are creating a 'Home of the Blue' that our families will be proud to call home. This campaign will help Airmen, families, leadership and local communities see firsthand the benefits of thriving (housing privatization) communities."

To learn more about the Rising View community, visit www.risingview.com or call the leasing office at 991-9840.