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BRAC Creating Over 10,000 New Jobs in San Antonio

BRAC Plan Bringing Billions For Local Projects SAN ANTONIO -- The slumping national economy cannot get in the way of the largest economic development project to ever hit San Antonio. Work is already under way on the Base Realignment and Closure plan, which is promising $2 billion in construction projects. The BRAC project is a large development partnership between military officials and local leaders as well as the Texas Department of Transportation to help minimize the construction impact. The $2 billion project will be divided between Ft. Sam Houston and Camp Bullis, as well as Lackland and Randolph Air Force bases To put it into perspective, we'll be building 6 million square feet of facilities both new and with renovations, roughly equivalent to 30 Wal-Mart Supercenters," said Randy Hoffman from the Army Corps of Engineers. The entire project is expected to create about 10,000 new jobs, BRAC officials said. Project leaders said this would give a much-needed boost to the struggling economy and housing market. "This is what I call a home run," said Mike Novak from the Military Transformation Task Force. "This will be the largest economic development project in our county in the next several years." Part of the plan is designed to bring the single largest medical training environment for the military to San Antonio. While the plan should have a widespread benefit, nobody will see bigger payoffs than the men and women in uniform. "What we are looking forward to in a matter of years once this is all said and done with is a real center of excellence for medical training, research and clinical medicine for our military," said Major Gen. Erv Lessel from Randolph Air Force Base. Military officials have contracted out a $500,000 of the $2 billion budget, and planners need to decide how to allocate the rest of the money. All of the projects must be completed by 2011.

Taken from KSAT.com.