Moving days are coming for several Arsenal organizations.
And those moving days represent a perfect storm for administrative space realignment.
During the past year, four factors -- 600,000 square feet of vacated space created by the reassignment of the Ordnance Munitions and Electronics Maintenance School from Redstone Arsenal to Fort Lee, Va., the need for consolidating and streamlining the administrative space allocations of current Arsenal tenants to save money, the demand for more space on Redstone by tenants with offices off-post and the outlook for future growth needs -- have come together to create opportunity that will reshape the Arsenal's work environment during the next three years.
"With the departure of OMEMS there are a number of facilities that have potential to be utilized for other missions," Garrison commander Col. John Hamilton said.
"Once these facilities are renovated, they will be suitable for other missions and they will represent the best way to reutilize space."
Yet, renovating facilities isn't beneficial and cost-effective if there isn't a need for those facilities. And that's where the Arsenal's growing number of tenants comes into the equation.
"Many Arsenal organizations have grown through the years. Their mission growth has occurred literally over decades. A lot of that growth has caused a split up of organizations with their employees and operations scattered in facilities around the installation," Hamilton said.
"So, we saw an opportunity here to not just move new people in those renovated OMEMS buildings, but to move on-post organizations so they would be better consolidated and to move organizations that are in leases off post into buildings on post."
The Garrison's efforts at administrative space realignment have been coordinated by project manager Kara Malone, who works for the Directorate of Public Works. Malone and a team of Public Works employees have spent months gathering data and determining the best plan for space realignment.
"It has taken a huge team effort to put together this plan," Hamilton said.
"We have worked closely with the organizations that are predominantly affected to help them define their requirements and find the best fit for their organization in an existing building. The team has done an exceptional job of bringing together all the data. Taking a building that is a certain size and a certain shape, and renovating it to serve a different mission is a challenge."
As the Garrison team made plans for administrative space realignment, the goal was to ensure that each organization would be consolidated in a single building or a campus if its requirement was too large for one building. Some organizations are so large that more than one campus was necessary to accommodate them.
"The plan is not perfect. But we are much, much closer to that goal," Hamilton said.
"The big driving force is that we need to make sure we are using existing buildings efficiently and we are extending the life of our existing buildings."
As buildings are renovated and organizations move, other buildings will be opened up for renovation and other movement throughout the three-year plan. Close to 8,000 employees will be involved in moves that involve 10 organizations.
"Every single small move in this plan has a domino effect," Malone said. "One organization's move causes all these ripple effects to happen across Redstone."
In June, renovations at building 5250 will be complete and the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space will be able to bring almost 400 employees on post and out of two off-post leases. In late summer, building 111 will be vacated and renovations will begin for future use by the PEO Missiles and Space.
Renovation construction has already begun at building 3303, which can be seen from the Gate 10/Patton Road entrance. It is the first of three buildings that will house the nearly 800 employees of the Logistics Support Activity and the Lead AMC Integration Support Office. Together, the two organizations will be housed in buildings 3303, 3305 and 3307. Renovation on buildings 3305 and 3307 will begin in the summer.
LOGSA and LAISO should be able to move into their buildings in mid- to late-2013 and early 2014.
Once LOGSA begins its moves out of the Sparkman Center, a lot of activity will take place that will move employees into areas that consolidate their organizations. When the moves at the Sparkman Center are complete, the Aviation and Missile Command will occupy buildings 5300, 5301, 5302 and the third floor of 5304, the Army Contracting Command-Redstone will fully occupy building 5303, and the Program Executive Office for Aviation will occupy buildings 5307, 5308, 5309, and the first and second floors of 5304 along with its existing building 5681 campus. The renovations and moves should be complete by mid-2014.
Buildings 3458 and 3459 will begin to be renovated this summer to house the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center and the Civilian Human Resources Agency, which is now scattered in offices at the Sparkman Center. The two organizations will be able to move into their renovated buildings by summer 2013.
By the fall of 2014, building 111 renovations will be complete for PEO Missiles and Space and the PEO Aviation 5681 campus renovations should also be complete.
In addition, Missile Defense Agency employees located at building 4505 will move to the Von Braun Complex and in fiscal 2015 renovations will be complete for the facility to be the new headquarters of the Army Contracting Command/Expeditionary Contracting Command.
Besides these plans, other remaining OMEMS buildings will be repurposed as the Garrison identifies other organizations that can utilize that area's remaining buildings.
The availability of the vacated OMEMS buildings provided an opportunity for expansion that is unique to Redstone at a time when most installations don't have the financial ability to expand. It has also presented a challenge.
"Because of budget constraints, funding for building a lot of new buildings isn't really available right now," Hamilton said. "We must first use our existing buildings before we ask for funding for new buildings."
It also provided a way to save about $3.8 million a year in lease costs for off-post facilities, to incorporate upgraded "green" utilities in administrative areas, and to create new and better synergies among Arsenal tenants. For instance, the new headquarters facility for the Army Contracting Command/Expeditionary Contracting Command will be housed in the renovated building 4505 located across the street from the Army Materiel Command. The contracting command is a subordinate of AMC.
"First, we were looking at the efficient use of these buildings. But that's not necessarily the most important part of the plan. What is most important is how these changes impact the effectiveness of organizations," Hamilton said. "Some organizations need to be adjacent to each other or physically co-located to operate effectively."
In addition to the administrative space realignment, the Garrison is also taking steps to consolidate employee, Soldier and family services into a one-stop shop in the former Military Personnel Office and at the now closed dining facility on Aerobee Road. These buildings are being renovated to accommodate MILPO, Finance, Military Housing, Army Community Service, Child Youth and School Services, employee badging and personnel, and other personnel support services. An education corridor will also be centralized at Toftoy Hall at the corner of Aerobee and Patton roads, and a commercial hotel chain will renovate some of the barracks facilities along Aerobee Road.
The development in the Gate 10/OMEMS area will have a substantial impact on the area.
"It's going to change the nature of what kind of work is going on in that area," Hamilton said. "There will be research and development activities in buildings previously used for training. Classrooms will be turned into office space. The number of people working in the area will grow significantly."
With any new change, there comes a level of stress, and Hamilton and the space realignment team recognize that affected employees may not be happy with the moves. They have worked to ensure a minimal amount of upheaval in the work force.
"We've synchronized the timeline to minimize people having to move multiple times," he said. "Some will have to move twice. But the vast majority will move one time into a new facility."
Hamilton hopes that leadership within the affected organizations will ensure their employees are kept informed about their move and any changes in the timeline.
The renovations, Hamilton said, will better position the installation for future growth opportunities.
"As the Department of Defense and other federal agencies look at where they need to shift resources, whether because of new Base Realignment and Closure recommendations or other stationing actions, they will look at an installation's ability to take on more growth. They will look at capacity and other capabilities," Hamilton said.
"If we can show that we use existing space effectively, that we have the ability to grow capabilities, that we have the infrastructure to sustain growth, and that we are set to receive new organizations and execute orders, then we will have a better chance of meeting the needs of new tenants."
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