Lawmaker seeks to protect taxpayers' interest in barrier island near Patrick AFB

April 29, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Florida Democrat Bill Nelson will try to amend a blueprint for defense spending before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week to stop the Air Force from giving a new developer the use of taxpayer-owned ocean-front property essentially free of charge.  He’s also urging the Air Force czar to put the brakes on the deal.

Under a plan the Air Force views favorably, the developer effectively would be given use of 200 acres of a barrier island in exchange for agreeing to bail out another builder’s unfinished housing privatization projects at bases in three other states.

So-called housing privatization is highly touted by the Bush administration not only in Florida, but also at 40 Air Force bases around the country.  But it’s a plan, Nelson says, that has gone sour - at least at Patrick Air Force Base near Melbourne, Florida.

 “I think it's a disservice not only to the taxpayers, but also to our men and women in uniform, because they aren't getting all the new housing they were promised,” Nelson said in a letter Friday to Air Force Secretary Michael T. Wynne.

Specifically at Patrick, the Air Force had agreed to give some 310 acres of a government-owned barrier island off the state’s Atlantic coast to Patrick Family Housing LLC, a partnership between the Air Force and a private developer called American Eagle Communities Inc.  In exchange, American Eagle was to build on 200 of those acres 552 new homes available for rent by service members.

The developer was able to sell the other 100 acres of the island property, valued in excess of $13 million.

Now, American Eagle has stopped construction on housing for service members at Patrick, after building just 163 units.  The same developer has left unfinished similar base housing projects in Arkansas, Georgia and Massachusetts.

Under the terms of the initial partnership for Patrick, the Air Force has the right to seek damages against the developer.  But instead, the Air Force has told Nelson’s office it intends to give up these rights in order to allow American Eagle to enter into an agreement with Hunt Pinnacle Group of El Paso, Texas to finish the housing privatization projects in Arkansas, Georgia and Massachusetts.

Meantime, the Air Force now says it’s satisfied with just 163 houses at Patrick instead of 552 units.

Last December, Nelson joined a handful of other senators in writing to Wynne to question the Air Force’s handling of the varied housing privatization projects at Patrick, Little Rock, Moody and Hanscom Air Force bases in the lawmakers’ home states.  Nelson also met with Wynne privately to voice his concerns about Patrick.

In the letter sent to the Air Force secretary Friday, and copied to Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Nelson now urges they “stop any plans to divest interest in the Patrick housing project, and to brief interested members of Congress on all options to salvage housing privatization efforts without further detriment to taxpayers.

 “We are watching with concern,” Nelson said in his letter.

Copy of Nelson's letter to Wynne

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