Corvias invests $325 million into Army housing, Fort Bragg to receive about $100 million

By Story by Thomas D. McCollum, Fort Bragg Garrison PAOOctober 2, 2019

Corvias invests $325 million into Army post housing infrastructure, Fort Bragg to receive an estimated $100 million of funds for improvements
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Two weeks ago Fort Bragg's Residential Communities Initiative partner Corvias announced a $325 million equity investment into its Department of Defense (DOD) portfolio to fund strategic modernization and resiliency improvements to its U.S. Army post housing infrastructure. Corvias officials estimate a minimum of $100 million of it will be spent at Fort Bragg.

"For the past year, Corvias has taken a lot of heat from our residents and leadership on how it managed its maintenance and customer service programs and with the overall quality of life in our neighborhoods," said Col. Phillip D. Sounia, Fort Bragg's garrison commander. "We have been working with them for months on how best to invest their money in order to not only address the residents' current needs but to improve the greatest number of homes on Fort Bragg. Soon families living throughout Fort Bragg will begin seeing major changes."

The $100 million will be used for three main projects: major renovation of 280 homes in the Pope and Bataan/Ardennes neighborhoods; continued servicing of heating, ventilation, air conditioning ducts, rain gutters, power washing, tree trimming plus replacing carpeting with luxury vinyl tile, street paving and playground upgrades, and finally replacing hot water heaters with whole house tankless Energy Star water heaters, new thermostats, new Energy Star HVAC systems and replacing lighting systems with LED lighting.

Work has already begun in 1960s era duplex housing in the Pope neighborhood. One duplex on Provider Drive has been completely gutted as contractors prepare, "beta homes." When completed, this renovated duplex will be used to see what works, what improvements need to be modified and what changes need to be dropped before work begins in earnest on 130 other homes in the neighborhood. Work on these homes is scheduled to be completed in December of 2021.

Similar work is being done on another 148 homes in the Bataan community. That work will begin in February and also end in December 2021. In addition to this investment, starting in early 2020, Corvias will invest another $50 million in demolition and construction as 160 older homes are demolished and 95 newer homes built in their place.

"This $50 million is part of the original RCI agreement between Corvias and the Army," Sounia said. "This is part of their out-year development plan where Corvias makes major investments into our housing in order to ensure they continue to meet the changing needs of our residents."

"The failed status quo -- repairing and maintaining aging and outdated facilities -- must be replaced by innovation and modernization, said John Picerne, founder of Corvias in a recent interview with National Public Radio. "That is what Corvias will do, across our entire portfolio, and this is the start. The goal is for the systems to communicate with us about issues and potential failures in advance of work orders, truly achieving the Gold Standard we set out to realize."

(Editor's note: For additional information, please click on the following link: https://www.corvias.com/solutionsinvestment