Fort Riley unveils new homes

FORT RILEY, Kansas — Fifty-two new single-family homes were unveiled as part of an initiative by the 1st Infantry Division in partnership with Corvias Property Management in the Warner Peterson Neighborhood on Fort Riley, Kansas, July 11, 2023.

Prior to unveiling the homes with a ceremonial ribbon cutting, remarks were made by Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher L. Mullinax, command sergeant major of the 1st Inf. Div. and Fort Riley, and Pete Sims, the Department of Defense Managing Director at Corvias, in support of the Army’s resiliency goals and to improve the installation’s desirability for Soldiers while stimulating the local community.

“Of all the places I’ve lived, and I’m not just saying that because I’m the division sergeant major, I couldn’t have had a better experience being here with the Fort Riley team and living on this installation,” said Mullinax. “The reason that all works is because we have this great partnership with Corvias.”

Since the partnerships began in 2006, Corvias has invested about $600 million in improvements, which includes the development of 2,169 homes on Fort Riley. According to Sims, this is believed to have an economic impact of approximately $1.4 billion.

“As a trusted Army partner we not only focus on the homes and families but we also try to help our military partners with their goals and objectives,” said Sims. “One of these is renewable energy.”

On Fort Riley, Corvias has developed around 12.3 megawatts of energy derived from systems capable of harnessing solar power. A new phase looking to add an additional 4.35 MW has been approved to begin in the near future.

“This is a real great benefit to our housing community because it fixes our costs in the long term and then it helps the Army with their resilience and renewable energy objectives,” said Sims.

As part of The Army Climate Strategy, the service hopes to deploy a gigawatt of renewable energy projects by 2025, enough to supply 250,000 homes. This objective includes building micro-grids on every installation across the United States by 2035. By 2030 this strategy hopes to achieve a 50% reduction in net greenhouse gas pollution on Army installations with the ultimate goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Corvias has created an environment where our Soldiers and their families can be successful,” said Mullinax. “We have an elite group of civilians that work tirelessly behind the scenes in all sorts of different jobs. Being here with the Big Red One and being a Soldier living on the installation, they’ve made sure I’ve been taken care of.”