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New Tyndall housing a cost-efficient upgrade

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — Already sliding past their 50th birthday, the earliest displays of family housing still are visible at Tyndall Air Force Base. The plain, squat, brick structures, built during the ’50s, sit like bunkers and look tailored for Spartan, commie-hatin’ cold warriors.

But past the unadorned structures a field of organized chaos emerges. Machinery and laborers haul, hoist and hammer as buildings in various stages of completion rise from the mud of a construction zone. A bit further down the first shoots of grass battle their way up through newly seeded lawns.

All new construction, decked out with the latest energy-efficient amenities, a community police station, accessible boat ramps, cozied up next to an 18-hole golf course and all radiating around a new community center with a swimming pool and Internet access.

One thing’s certain, this ain’t your grandfather’s military family housing.

The new housing units, 306 in total, make the family residences on Tyndall look practically indistinguishable from their civilian counterparts.

Part of the formula for making military housing look less like military housing is bringing in someone nonmilitary.

In early 2007 Tyndall privatized on-base housing and responsibility fell to U.K.-based Balfour Beatty.

“The whole concept of privatization is to bring on developers who can bring new homes along quickly and who can do that by borrowing money and can do that faster than a government or (military contractor) could do,” said Teri Henry, community manager.

Tyndall’s partnership with Balfour Beatty is only one part of the four-piece puzzle. The total project wraps Tyndall with Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; Altus Air Force Base, Okla.; and Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., into one contract and what Henry called, “One big pot of money and loans.”

“You have it right here, you can be on base, in a gated community,” Henry said. “You know, what neighborhood can folks afford to live in off base where they can launch their boats from the neighborhood? I mean, it just has so many quality-of-life things that it brings to the table.”

A comparable house off base would cost roughly $1,600 a month, Henry said.

Once the project is completed, 116 new houses will be built for junior enlisted, 93 for junior officers, 37 for senior officers and three general’s quarters will be available.

“When I saw it first hand, I was like, ‘Oh this is nice!’” said military spouse Yvonne Warren.

Warren and her husband arrived from Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, on Dec. 7 and soon became one of the new house’s inaugural inhabitants. The addition of a daughter, she said, made the housing they left a bit tight. The extra room was welcome.

“It was nice,” Warren said of her former housing. “We thought it was very nice until we got here and saw these.”