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New AFRC to relocate troops to Fairchild

  • Published
  • Seattle District Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs
SEATTLE, Wash. --  Fairchild Air Force Base will host a new $31 million Armed Forces Reserve Center and Organizational Maintenance Shop according to the Assistant Secretary of the Army. Army units currently assigned to the Mann Army Reserve Center in Hillyard and the Walker Army Reserve Center in Spokane Valley, Wash. will be relocated to the new facility on Fairchild.

The project is part of the Base Realignment and Closure package following release of the 2006 BRAC Commission report. Construction is scheduled for completion this year. The new AFRC will have the capability to accommodate units from Washington Army Guard facilities at its current armory and Organizational Maintenance Shop at Geiger Field, Wash., if the state decides to relocate those units.

The project closes four U.S. Army Reserve Centers and one Area Maintenance Support Activity. It will also realign one Army Reserve Center and builds three multi-component, multifunctional Armed Forces Reserve Centers throughout the state of Washington, capable of accommodating National Guard and Reserve units. The state will close three existing Guard centers at Everett, Snohomish and Ellensburg, Wash. The AFRCs will have the capability to accommodate these units if the state decides to relocate the units from these closed facilities into the new AFRCs.

The plan will also reduce military manpower and associated costs for maintaining existing facilities by collapsing nine geographically separated facilities into three modern AFRCs. These joint-use facilities will significantly reduce operating costs and create improved business practices.

The Fairchild project will include six buildings, five of which will be pre-engineered, steel structures fabricated by West-Plains-based Garco Building Systems. The main reserve training center will be a separately designed, 75,600-square-foot structure, and will be used for full-time staff offices and for reserve units' training each weekend.

The project also will include a 34,000-square-foot modified L-shaped building that will house additional training space and a number of vehicle maintenance bays, one heated and one unheated storage building, a hazardous or flammable waste building, and a maintenance training bay. The complex, which will be more than 208,000 square feet in total floor space, does not include barracks for reservists.

The plan considered feasible locations within the demographic and geographic areas of the closing facilities and affected units. The sites selected were determined as the best locations because they optimize the Reserve Components' ability to recruit and retain Reserve Component Soldiers and to train and mobilize units affected by this realignment.
The new complex is sited on the east side of Fairchild, near the commercial entrance gate on Rambo Road.

According to the U.S. Army Reserve Command, the Walker center houses several units including the 3rd Battalion, of the 4th and 5th Brigades, and the 659th Engineer Company, along with Air National Guard units. Mann Hall is occupied by Army Maintenance Support Activity 80, 17 legal support specialists, the 981st Medical Detachment, the 396th Medical Company and the 643rd transportation detachment. Community groups have been discussing possible future uses for the two surplus facilities, which were identified for closure during the last BRAC.

The project is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but Fairchild and Air Mobility Command representatives provided design input as well. The Corps expects the prime contractor to put 42,000 man-hours into the project, not including the work of its major subcontractors.

One of the Corps' top priorities is to work on those projects and issues that will keep our nation and communities safe. Projects like this provide our Soldiers and Airmen with a state of the art facility and ensure they receive the best training possible, according to Dick Devlin of the Seattle District Public Affairs Office.

The Seattle District's military mission involves design and construction of projects for the Army and Air Force, the Army Reserve, and the National Guard. Installations served include Fort Lewis, Madigan Army Medical Center, McChord Air Force Base, and Fairchild, all in Washington. Also Umatilla Army Depot, Oregon; Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho; and Malmstrom Air Force Base and several air stations in Montana. The Corps also provides real estate services for the Army and Air Force for land where installations are located.