THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604140054
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A01 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: The Military Goes Into Business
First in an occasional series
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 183 lines
The Navy's work in Hampton Roads is headed for dramatic change.
Navy leaders are searching for ways to get businesses to take many base functions and pay the Navy for the chance to develop some of its prime real estate.
The move is necessary, base commanders say, because they know their budgets will not grow. Hampton Roads bases are filled with World War II-era buildings and utilities that need to be replaced.
Among the possibilities are a 70,000-seat stadium overlooking Little Bay in Willoughby - built on an unused portion of the Norfolk Naval Air Station - or a sports complex on federal land that would include the nautitorium long sought by Old Dominion University.
There might also be a major restaurant and hotel on the Navy's waterfront, a marina with sailboats and jet skis for rent, jogging trails where a junk yard once stood, picnic areas, and a major welcome center - open to civilian tourists as well as sailors awaiting transit overseas.
The Navy's installations in Hampton Roads - built, rebuilt, altered and reused - have about outlived their use.
A horse stable that was used as the Navy's commissary at the Norfolk Naval Base has finally been torn down. What was built as a multi-wing hospital in preparation for World War II - but never used for that purpose - still houses the top admiral in the Atlantic Fleet, as well as his staff. While seaplane ramps on the air station still dip into Willoughby Bay, no Navy planes exist that can use them today.
The Norfolk Naval Base, a slightly antiquated marine and industrial complex, is trying to prepare for the 21st century.
More efficient heating and cooling methods could save millions of dollars in operating costs; tired old buildings without insulation require huge maintenance; more than 200 structures need to be torn down.
For Rear Adm. Robert S. Cole, this place has got to change.
If it doesn't, ``we will just never get there'' said Cole, the latest base commander to be charged with rebuilding the Navy's complex in Norfolk, even though he has little money with which to do it.
``The tax base just won't support giving us the money we need. The military is not going to command those kinds of wealths in the future. We are already behind the power curve,'' he said.
For many years the Navy ignored its shore infrastructure and focused on the readiness aspects of its ships and planes, according to Cole.
That philosophy has caught up with the Navy.
Cole hopes the private sector will help him make the necessary improvements despite tightening budgets. The mission is described in a plan called ``2010'' that lays out a vision for the base over the next 15 years.
That fits with the Pentagon's new position that the procurement dollars needed tomorrow can be ``found'' within the constraints of projected defense budgets. The money, according to Defense Secretary William J. Perry, will come from closing excess military bases, turning more activities - such as running bases - over to the private sector, and implementing acquisition reforms that let the military use off-the-shelf electronics systems rather than specially-designed components.
Some outside analysts are less confident that privatization, acquisition reform and other management improvements will save the kind of money needed to sustain and equip U.S. forces.
Cole is convinced otherwise. He's looking for ways to make the base at least partially pay for itself; to lure tourism to the docks; to entice private business to come here to make a buck; to get out of some of the operations the Navy once thought it should command, such as housing and cooking and building.
Cole, a former A-4 Phantom pilot who commanded the carrier Forrestal, says he needs to become a bit of a Johnny Appleseed today, ``sowing the seeds of change'' for the Navy's facilities, not just in Norfolk, but throughout Hampton Roads.
Recent administrative changes now give Cole direct authority over all naval facilities within a 50 mile radius of Norfolk, including Oceana, Little Creek, the Armed Forces Staff College, Atlantic Fleet compound, naval shipyard and Naval Security Group Activity Northwest in Chesapeake. He now has limited authority over Dam Neck and Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, both directly responsible to other Navy departments.
He needs the authority to begin addressing regional issues of efficiency for the bases.
Crediting Adm. William J. Flanagan, commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, with the initial concept, Cole senses an urgency to step across traditional boundaries that restricted the base to purely military use and open it up to what he calls ``wild things.''
The 70,000-seat regional stadium overlooking Little Bay in Willoughby may be such an idea, he said.
``Although my view of that is that the tunnel traffic (coming off I-64) would be tough,'' he said.
Yet that piece of property, on the air station's northeast corner, is a key link to the development of the base.
``We put out a request for proposal for this (and) Adm. Flanagan is asking developers at the national level what they think should be there. We're saying come walk it. We are opening it up to the professionals. So all kinds of wild things are being mentioned.''
Nothing is so silly it won't be considered.
``This is unique because there is no form or structure to it,'' said Cole of Flanagan's concept. ``He let us intuitively march down the path and we've been given the flexibility to create efficiencies as they develop.
``We are not limited by a lack of imagination. We are stimulated by being free to come up with whatever the efficiencies are that make sense.''
All are potential cash sources for the Navy, says Cole. And they come at a time that meshes well with discussions about regionalism in Hampton Roads and in public/private partnerships being developed.
A key to any success at changing the base's future is to avoid restricting the thinking because of legislative constraints, he said.
``We will put together proposals and packages, even if constrained by legislation,'' said Cole. ``We at least can take the package in its entirety to the first gatekeeper and say: `Look what we could do if given relief in this area. Look at the cash flows we could generate, efficiencies that we create, the infrastructure we could recapitalize without going to the tax rolls for relief.'
``We are not here to press the edges of the envelope illegally. We are here to effect change that probably is overdo, but in a coordinated, rational way.''
Cole took down the fences - literally - as his first step to opening the base to the private sector.
``You have to come out from behind a mentality of being a fortress America and become open and seamless to the community before you can do anything,'' he said.
The base was on that path when it decided a few years ago to reconstruct a new commissary and exchange store outside the base's main gate, to make access easier. It lured a privately owned movie operator to the site as its first public/private venture.
Known today as the Main Gate Theater, it is the model for other businesses that may want to locate on the base, said Cole.
``He leases the land. He pays taxes to Norfolk on all tickets sold. We give him a captive audience (which includes the public). It is a recreational facility for us. It's win, win for everybody.''
It's one less building that the Navy pays to heat and cool.
To build on that experience, Cole decided he had to relax security, remove the gate guards and soften the appearance of the giant industrial complex. High security remains where it needs to be, around sensitive installations such as weapons areas, ships and planes.
But instead of the barbed-wire fences at the heads of the piers, the Navy is installing scenic brick walls, such as those in front of Old Dominion University.
Twenty security cameras, monitored by base police, will focus on high-crime areas of the waterfront. Police officers now ride bicycles through residential neighborhoods. Others patrol by car and truck.
``It's truly old-fashioned police on the beat kind of stuff . . . but it's working out well,'' said Cole.
Soon, the federal police force will be expanded to take over the duties of military police at all major area naval facilities, said Cole. Its headquarters will be in Norfolk, with precincts at Little Creek and Oceana.
That too is a product of defense cuts. Within the next 18 months the Navy will lose its master-at-arms functions ashore, normally performed by military police.
Cole is faced with empty buildings at the site of the Naval Aviation Depot, which will close this year as a result of congressionally mandated base closing issues dating from 1993.
``So for the next few years we are figuring ways we can use these buildings for Navy things that create good efficiencies for us internally,'' he said. ``This is not the area we are offering to anyone proposing to do business with us.''
However, nearby, where old ``humpback'' hangars have outserved their purpose, there will be a large area of the base that could be opened up to private investors.
Also nearby, in the Willoughby Housing area, stands another challenge, said Cole.
``The housing area can be rebuilt, or torn down,'' he said. ``Adm. Flanagan and his staff are looking at the housing policy. . . . We are not sure we need to be in the housing business as deeply as we are.
``We have over 5,000 units here in Hampton Roads. Maybe we need to work out a growth plan with the cities; where we go to the city for housing.''
If a large hotel complex was built, Cole envisions an even wider impact: ``We could shut down the BOQ's (bachelor officer quarters) across the base and that would become the place where we stay when we come to Norfolk.''
Driving all of the changes is the Navy's ability to generate cash that would not only improve the quality of life on the base, but also recapitalize some of the basic infrastructure, said Cole. ``Pave the streets, repair the buildings. Those funds are lacking now. Right now I'm struggling to find funds to fill potholes left over from winter.'' ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON, The Virginian-Pilot
Rear Adm. Robert S. Cole tries his hand at operating the new
security monitors installed at the Norfolk Naval Base. If this place
doesn't change, he said, ``we will just never get there.''
KEYWORDS: FEDERAL REAL ESTATE NORFOLK NAVAL BASE NAVY
INSTALLATIONS PRIVATIZATION by CNB