Hopewell News

Even with the construction of a $114 million 1,000-room lodging facility at Fort Lee, the demand for off-post lodging will increase, said Fort Lee Garrison Commander Col. Mike Morrow during a tour of the installation with Hopewell officials. The number of temporary duty (TDY) soldiers is expected to increase from a 996 in 2008 to 2,300 in 2011. The currently on-post capacity is 517.
The city officials who toured the site of the facility and viewed other Base Realignment and Closure projects across Fort Lee had concerns about the economic effect of the construction of the lodging facility. Area hoteliers feared it could drastically cut business and a coalition of them was able to receive an extension to the comment period for the facility’s draft environmental assessment.
In 2003, before the 2005 congressional decision to expand the base, there was a plan to replace aging lodging, Morrow said. Out of the current 14 current lodging buildings at Fort Lee, 13 are over 30 years old, he said. The original total of rooms in the facility, about 17,000, reflected the removal of aging lodging and an increase of capacity to 80 percent of daily TDY demand. Since then, Morrow said, the project has been scaled down to renovate the existing rooms.
In general, Army lodging facilities house officers who arrive from their regularly stationed post and reside there for up to six months. At Fort Lee, many of those soldiers will be attendees of the recently opened Logistics University, which is across the street from the proposed lodging facility site.
“That group of people needs a place to stay,” Morrow said.
If the project remains on schedule, it will open in 2012. As the influx of soldiers has already begun, the supply of on-post housing will greatly outstrip demand in 2011, Morrow said.
“We needed a new facility this summer,” he said. “We have a requirement to house all these folk.”
According to a primer about the project, in 2008, the potential of off-post rooms was 479. In 2011, that number could increase to 1,783 before settling to about 723 once the lodging facility opens.
“It is not our intention to take away everything,” Morrow said
Housing soldiers at Fort Lee would have several benefits, Morrow said. It reduces taxpayer expense to transport soldiers to and from Fort Lee daily, allows for better command and control of the soldiers, gives them better accessibility to resources at the Logistics University, lowers the risk of vehicle accidents and lowers the risk of a hotel becoming a target of terroristic attacks, he said.
Before the project can begin, the comment period, which has been extended to Oct. 7, must end. After that, the Final Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact will be released. The estimated date for that to occur is Oct. 23. This phase has a 30-day public comment period as well. If there are no further issues, the request will be sent to Congress. No direct taxpayer funds are expected to pay for the facility. Funding will come from the non-appropriated fund of the Army Lodging Fund.
Fort Lee is expanding due to the consolidation of logistics training and several other subsets of the Army. In 2011, it is expected that the average daily population of the base will increase from its current number, 18,000 to 38,000.
Comments on the draft environmental assessment may be sent to Ms. Carol Anderson, Environmental Management Office, 1816 Shop Road, Fort Lee, Va. 23802-1604 or e-mailed to leeenepalee@conus.army.mil.