The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) awarded a $51.5 million firm-fixed-price contract to KBE Ventures, a Farmington, CT-based joint venture of KBE Building Corporation and Derita Construction, to build an Armed Forces Reserve Center at Cucia Park in Middletown, CT.
The contract includes construction of a 164,000-square-foot training facility with administrative, educational, assembly, library, learning center, vault, weapons simulator, and physical fitness areas for 4 Army Reserve units and 6 Connecticut Army National Guard units…
The new facility, located on a 42-acre park, will also include a 35,000-square-foot organizational maintenance shop and a 3,886-square-foot unheated storage building. In addition, the contract includes associated parking areas, walkways, and access roads. Approximately 100 personnel are expected to use the campus.
The center is consolidating Army Reserve and National Guard facilities being closed down in accordance with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations. The BRAC Commission report, which became law on Nov 9/05, directs the following actions:
“Close the US Army Reserve Center, Middletown, CT, the Organizational Maintenance Shop, Middletown, CT; the SGT Libby US Army Reserve Center, New Haven, CT; the Organizational Maintenance Shop, New Haven, CT; the Army Reserve Area Maintenance Support Activity #69, Milford, CT and relocate units to a new Armed Forces Reserve Center, Organizational Maintenance Shop and Army Maintenance Support Activity in Middletown, Connecticut, if the Army is able to acquire land suitable for the construction of the facilities. The new AFRC, OMS and AMSA shall have the capability to accommodate units from the following facilities: Connecticut Army National Guard Armories in Putnam, Manchester, New Britain and the CTARNG facility in Newington, CT if the state decides to relocate those National Guard units.”
To implement the BRAC language, the USACE looked at 3 sites in Middletown: Cucia Park on Smith Street, Bysiewicz Industrial Subdivision on Liberty Park, and Millennium Industrial Park on Ken Dooley Drive.
Based on a USACE environmental assessment, the Army determined [pdf] that at the Bysiewicz site the amount of land required for the reserve center was no longer available for purchase by the federal government. The Army decided against the Millennium Industrial Park site because of the impact on the wetlands and protected species, as well as the higher cost of construction compared to the Cucia Park.
The Army chose the Cucia Park because the city of Middletown offered the land for sale and because the impact on the wetlands and protected species and the construction costs would be less than at the Millennium site. In making the Cucia Park selection, the Army said:
“The Army has evaluated the impacts at this site and has determined there is no practicable alternative to avoid new construction in wetlands and that the proposed action includes all practicable measures to minimize harm to wetlands which may result from such use. In making this finding the Army has taken into account the economic, environmental and other pertinent factors of other alternative sites.”
KBE Ventures expects to complete construction at the Cucia Park site by Sept 15/11. Bids were solicited via FedBizOpps with 14 bids received by the US Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District in Kentucky (W912QR-10-C-0004).