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More jobs at Quantico Marine Corps Base will mean more ID checks when there are heightened security measures. file/SUZANNE CARR ROSSI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

Military projects to boost building

Conference held for contractors on how to profit off estimated 20,000 BRAC jobs coming to area in next few years

BY BILL FREEHLING

Date published: 7/1/2008

BY BILL FREEHLING

The area will be getting "a boatload of construction jobs" in the next few years, the national chairman of the Associated Builders and Contractors told an audience yesterday at the Holiday Inn Quantico Center.

Bill Fairchild, who is also president of Manassas-based contractor R.W. Murray Co., was addressing a seminar on the opportunities created by the more than 20,000 new military jobs coming to Fort Belvoir and the Quantico Marine Corps Base by 2011.

The job moves were ordered in 2005 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. While most of the new jobs will go to Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, the Quantico base is expected to get 2,658.

BRAC's decision moved headquarters for all services' criminal investigation departments and the site of the Counterintelligence Field Activity and the Defense Security Service to Quantico. The base is already home to the FBI Academy and the Drug Enforcement Agency Training Academy.

John Rosewarne, BRAC project manager for the Quantico Marine Corps Base, said a 719,000-square-foot facility will be built on the base to house the new jobs. The $328 million project will be on the west side of Interstate 95, about a mile from Quantico exit 148.

The project is required to be completed by September 2011, Rosewarne said. It will also include numerous infrastructure improvements to Exit 148, nearby roads and the security gate.

Fairchild noted that the jobs haven't come yet and pointed out that government projects move slowly. He said it was important not to build commercial space too aggressively now and not to get ahead of the market.

Overdevelopment was one of the causes for the big drops in residential real estate prices, Realtor J. Michael Hill said yesterday. There are still huge inventories of available housing in Prince William County, although lower prices have helped sales. He said the new jobs will create some demand for the homes, although many workers probably won't move into the area.

"If the numbers ever get here, we're prepared for them," Hill said.

Retail could also benefit from the new jobs, Potomac Mills mall General Manager David Gott said yesterday.

Yesterday's symposium was put on by the Quantico/Belvoir Regional Business Alliance and the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce. Most attendees were small business owners trying to learn more about how to get subcontracting work on the massive construction projects.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com

BRAC Impact on Quantico base Some the benefits coming to the Quantico Marine Corps Base in the next few years as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decisions, according to John Rosewarne, base BRAC project manager: 2,658 new jobs--351 military, 1,752 civilian and 555 contractors. 300 additional contractors offsite. Two formal schools, averaging more than 200 students a day. A new 719,000-square-foot, $328 million building west of Interstate 95. Infrastructure improvements to the Exit 148 ramp, nearby roads and security gate.

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Date published: 7/1/2008