CHIAfE+VRES, Belgium - After 20 months of construction taking place directly behind the community plaza, the much-anticipated Army lodge was ceremonially opened in a ribbon-cutting ceremony here June 23.
As the air base's biggest Corps-managed construction project ever, this three-story, $16 million hotel will serve the base, NATO, SHAPE, and diplomatic communities, said Fritz Kroesen, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District regional program manager for U.S. Army Garrison BENELUX.
The lodge replaces the commercially-leased Hotel Le MaisiAfA..res, saving the Army close to $2 million a year, he said.
Army Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation (DFMWR) attended the grand opening ceremony of the 94-room facility, which includes four rooms that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lodge also accommodates 30 standard rooms, 60 family suites with kitchenettes, and two extended-stay rooms with kitchenettes. It also offers other modern Army lodge amenities such as high-speed Internet access, on-site laundry, microwaves and refrigerators in rooms, AFN television, and state-of-the-art building management systems.
More importantly, the lodge complies with anti-terror force-protection regulations - something the Hotel Le MaisiAfA..res does not.
After recently being dubbed an enduring installation and receiving an influx of new troops from Stuttgart, Germany, the ChiAfA..vres garrison will use this facility to make PCS'ing troops smoother.
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