Fayetteville area gears up for growth at Bragg, and beyond
Posted on: Nov 10, 2010This a great article on the N&O
FAYETTEVILLE -- Kelly Edge has always hated computers, never felt the need for anything more high-tech than a good blow-dryer and curling iron at her Leading Edge Salon in Fayetteville. Six months ago, her 9-year-old shop didn't even have a Web page.
Then one of her regulars asked her: How are any of the thousands of new people moving into town in the next year going to find you?
Those people are soldiers and civilian employees from Fort McPherson, the U.S. Army base outside Atlanta that the military is closing. The prospect of gaining some new customers from all those soldiers and their families finally got Edge to put her shop on the Internet. Though the Georgia-to-North Carolina migration has barely begun, she has already seen an increase in business.
"I'm very excited about it," said Edge, a lifelong Fayetteville resident. "I feel like you can't get too crowded."
Much of the state is still slogging through a slow-to-recover economy. But in Fayetteville, the broader region around Fort Bragg and even as far away as the Triangle, planners are bracing for an influx of about 40,000 people who are expected to come with - or follow - two major Army commands moving to Fort Bragg.
Forces Command, led by a four-star general and the largest command in the Army, oversees the training, mobilization and deployment of most of the Army's troops. Army Reserve Command, led by a three-star general and under the direction of Forces Command, is in charge of all reserve units.
The two commands will bring nearly 3,000 new soldiers and civilian military employees to Fort Bragg, many of them from much higher pay grades than the typical new recruit. But it's the other money under Forces Command's control that is generating most of the hype. The command has an annual budget of $30 billion to train and equip soldiers, and hundreds of contractors competing for their share are expected to move from Atlanta or elsewhere to be closer to the generals who sign the checks.
With them would come spouses and children and hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries to be spent on goods and services. In all, studies say, the move could generate up to 19,000 new jobs in an 11-county area. Coupled with normal growth, the influx of people could push population in the region from about 950,000 now to more than 1million when the relocation is complete.
Members of the commands' advance parties began arriving last month, with about 300 expected to be here by the end of the year. Within a year, Fort Bragg, already the country's largest military base, will have more generals than any place outside Washington.
'Pentagon South'
Its unofficial new status as the Pentagon South brings bonuses that could be counted well beyond Fort Bragg.
The building boom started on base, with the construction of hundreds of new housing units for soldiers and their families, and of the enormous new headquarters building that will house the offices of both Forces Command and Army Reserve Command. The 631,000-square-foot building, on schedule to be completed next June at a cost of $299 million, has been the largest construction project in the state since its groundbreaking in 2008.
Soldiers coming onto base every day have watched the progress of the five-story Georgian-revival-style building with a mixture of pride and anxiety. Once all its occupants arrive, they know, everything - morning and afternoon commutes, shopping centers, neighborhoods, schools - will get more crowded.
In the meantime, though, the job site has provided work for an average of 450 people a day, said Adam Rogers, project manager with Hensel Phelps Construction, the Colorado-based designer and builder.
About 70 percent of the subcontractors the company is using are from North Carolina, Rogers said.
Hammers are swinging off-post as well.
Resources stretched
The bulk of anticipated growth from the base realignment is expected to happen in Fayetteville and surrounding Cumberland County, as well as Harnett, Hoke and Moore counties. Though Wake County is outside the 11-county region that has been the focus of the most organized planning, Wake cities and towns will get a share of the influx as well.
"I don't think we realize how big the impact is going to be for years to come," said Doug Peters, head of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce.
Areas that see the most growth also will incur the highest costs. Counties and towns are scrambling to fund roads, water and sewage-treatment systems, schools for more than 9,000 children, and other infrastructure that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
"You reach a point where you've got to have resources," said Phil Ferrell, superintendent of Harnett County Schools. That system, already overcrowded, needs a new elementary school, two new middle schools and a high school. It has no money in its budget for any of them.
"We are a low-wealth county facing unprecedented growth with limited resources," Ferrell said.
With the creation of so many Bragg-related jobs still months and possibly years away, unemployment in Cumberland County is 9.1 percent, just a few points below the state average. Yet Fayetteville has the second-highest per-capita income in the state. First is Jacksonville, another military town, which is also growing as a result of Marine Corps base realignment.
Much of the activity in the region is in anticipation of the growth.
A midpriced shopping destination for parts of southeastern North Carolina, Fayetteville has been promised expansion of its retail industry, with existing chains looking for places to add more stores and new retailers exploring the market. A short-run bonus for shopkeepers: With more than 80 percent of Bragg's 55,000 soldiers scheduled to spend a rare Christmas at home this year, the holiday shopping season should be especially good.
A new 4-star hotel
Trying to get ahead of demand, the city of Fayetteville gave more than $400,000 in local tax incentives to help persuade Embassy Suites to build the city's first four-star hotel with conference space. The company broke ground for the project last month.
At least three industrial and office parks are in the works, one of them with more than 1.5 million square feet of office space.
Though sales of existing homes are down by double digits in Fayetteville as they are elsewhere, new home sales are up 1 percent over last year. Bloomberg/BusinessWeek recently ranked Fayetteville the fifth-strongest housing market in the country, in part due to purchases by people moving from Atlanta.
"It's not that our homebuilders aren't stressed, just like the ones in the rest of the state," said David Evans, president of the Fayetteville Regional Association of Realtors. "But they're not dead."
Evans counts at least 17 new apartment complexes being built or planned and at least eight housing subdivisions. One builder alone has plans for more than 500 homes.
At housing fairs he leads for soldiers and civilians relocating from Atlanta, Evans emphasizes what he considers charming about his hometown: its active arts community, revamped downtown, high-performing school system, cultural diversity, and proximity to larger cities such as Raleigh and Charlotte.
"We don't have everything," he admits. "But we don't have the craziness, either."
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