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Registers finally ring for mall at Ramstein

The doors to Ramstein Air Base’s high-rise hotel/shopping mall complex are finally open.

Three years late and millions of dollars over budget, the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center — KMCC or K-Town Mall for short — welcomed its first customers Thursday.

A three-phase opening will continue through the summer as finishing touches are put on the 844,000-square-foot complex and store employees stock shelves.

“The KMCC is truly an amazing complex not only for Ramstein, but for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and will greatly serve its primary focus of providing world-class support to our war fighters, their families and the community,” Lt. Col. Dawn Lancaster, commander of Ramstein’s 435th Services Squadron, said. “There is nothing like it in our military communities.”

Included in the center are an eight-story, 350-room hotel, parking for 2,800 cars, a four-screen movie theater, the largest base exchange in Europe, dozens of smaller stores and a host of eateries including Romano’s Macaroni Grill.

The complex is near Ramstein’s west gate and next to the airlift passenger terminal, a transit point for thousands of service members arriving monthly for assignments in Germany or traveling to posts supporting Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

Airmen, soldiers, Marines and sailors accustomed to staying at visiting quarters in nondescript, tan and brown buildings will think they’ve walked into a resort. After checking in, guests can wander into a 250-seat sports lounge or try out a two-story-tall climbing wall.

Primary customers for the mall are the 50,000 U.S. service members, civilians and service members living at Ramstein and several nearby U.S. installations in the Kaiserslautern area.

The mall is also expected to attract service members from bases across southwest Germany such as Spangdahlem Air Base and Army installations in Heidelberg.

The complex has been a time-consuming and expensive project.

When ground was broken in 2003, with a completion date three years later, the complex had a price tag that the Air Force put at $163 million. Last year, the Government Accountability Office estimated the final price would exceed $214 million as repair bills, Air Force supervisory costs and dollar exchange rates were factored in.

The complex was the largest Defense Department construction project outside of the United States when work started on it. KMCC was part of the effort to expand area shopping, restaurant and entertainment options and increase the number of hotel rooms available for service members and dependents using Ramstein’s passenger terminal, the primary hub for the U.S. military in Western Europe since the closing of Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, Germany.

By its scheduled completion date of 2006, though, construction problems and contract disputes had slowed the project to the point that no one was guessing when opening day would arrive.

German contractors, the German government and the Air Force debated how to make repairs — an “environmentally friendly” roof covered with grass leaked, for example — and who would pay the costs. The GAO’s 2008 report estimated the price tag for roof repairs alone at $10.8 million.

The woes continued into 2007, prompting the Air Force Audit Agency to issue a 120-page report criticizing how the service worked with the German government agencies and German firms overseeing the work. Also joining the fray were Congress’ House Committee on Government Oversight and the Government Accountability Office.

Air Force officers more accustomed to organizing air campaigns instead of construction projects were called to Capitol Hill in 2007 and 2008 to explain how the service was resolving the problems.

“We’re frustrated and disappointed but we’re doing everything we can to get this done,” Maj. Gen. Marc Rogers, the vice commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, told lawmakers in June 2008.

Air Force and GAO investigators blamed much of the delay and skyrocketing cost on the lack of control U.S. officials had over the German firms, hired and supervised by the German government.

To increase Air Force supervision, a colonel became the Air Force’s full-time project director. The German government broke the repair bill deadlock by providing money to cover costs while leaving open the question of who would ultimately foot the bill.