Air Force officials partner with community to present land-lease opportunities

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SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) --  Air Force officials are looking to harness private-sector creativity and innovation by soliciting ideas for a series of land leases, with the end goal of creating lucrative and lasting real estate developments.

Leaders from the 628th Air Base Wing at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., and from the Air Force Real Property Agency in San Antonio met with local representatives and members of the development community Oct. 26 to promote Enhanced Use Lease development opportunities at JB Charleston. The proposed EUL project includes three parcels on the outskirts of the installation.

Approximately 40 Air Force, industry and community leaders attended the event in North Charleston, SC, which focused on providing robust project and program information, and included a site tour and interactive question-and-answer session.

Col. Martha A. Meeker, the 628th ABW commander, offered an installation point-of-view on EUL project benefits.

"I am proud to support the EUL program and the opportunities presented by these tracts of land," she said. "My wing oversees more than 79,000 service men and women, and ventures like these can return value directly back to the Air Force in the form of services, improved infrastructure, you name it. That is my top priority."

The EUL program is a major part of AFRPA's mission to manage, acquire and dispose of Air Force real property worldwide, and is becoming an increasingly important tool in Air Force leadership's effort to supplement declining budgets.

"Our goal is to conduct the Air Force EUL program with effectiveness and efficiency of a successful enterprise," said Dennis Guadarrama, chief of AFRPA's Strategic Asset Utilization Division, the unit charged with implementing EULs. "Through in-kind consideration, EULs can be a real force in improving quality of life at installations without burdening taxpayers,"

To date, AFRPA project managers more than 20 EUL projects in various stages of development at bases throughout the United States and its territories.

Air Force officials will showcase another opportunity for the private sector to run a state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, at its next Industry Day, slated for Nov. 18.  For more information about this and other projects, or to register for the upcoming Industry Day, please visit http://www.safie.hq.af.mil/afrpa/eul/index.asp.