Press Release: Air Force selects offeror to privatize housing for ACC Group III Published Nov. 17, 2011 By Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Air Force recently identified Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC, as the highest ranked offeror to privatize the military family housing at Dyess AFB, Texas, and Moody AFB, Ga., through a grouped base project called ACC Group III. The deal, valued at $72.8 million in development costs, provides new and updated housing for 858 military families using only $428,000 of appropriated funds. Already involved in military privatized housing, Balfour Beatty Communities is the developer, community, facilities and asset manager of 43 privatized military family housing communities and one unaccompanied personnel housing community for the Air Force, Army and Navy. "The ACC Group III project represents the next important step to improve the sense of community for military families assigned to Dyess AFB and Moody AFB," said Rick Taylor, executive vice president of Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC. Under the deal, the Air Force will lease up to 377 acres of land as part of a 50-year transaction and convey 674 existing housing units and other improvements to Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC. At the end of the initial development period, up to 184 new units will be built, 173 will be updated and 501 units will remain as-is with minor improvements. Balfour Beatty will construct a housing management office and community amenities at both locations. At closing, the houses become the property of ACC Group III Housing, LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC, who will own and operate the rental housing development for military families, as well as finance, plan, design and construct improvements in the development that maintain at least 858 housing units for the 50-year lease period. "The Air Force chose Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC, after determining that it offered the most advantageous proposal considering all of the criteria in the request for proposals," said Col. Thomas Laffey, chief of the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment Housing Privatization Division. In 1996, Congress created the Military Housing Privatization Initiative as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The goal was to provide military members with quality homes faster than through military construction alone. According to Laffey, the Air Force has accomplished in 10 years through housing privatization what would have taken 25 years using traditional military construction and saved taxpayers billions in the process. "The Air Force has privatized more than 40,000 homes at 47 bases at a cost to the Air Force of $469 million, and brought in $7.1 billion in private funding," Laffey said. "The ability to partner with the private sector development community has helped the Air Force provide quality homes for Airmen and their families faster than traditional military construction programs." AFCEE, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, serves as the primary Air Force service agent for military housing privatization efforts including completing feasibility analyses, developing project concepts and solicitations, and providing support to the integrated acquisition teams that execute projects. For general information regarding the Air Force Housing Privatization program, visit: www.afcee.af.mil/resources/housingprivatization/index.asp.