Housing upgrades set for Fort Eustis and Fort Story
The real estate firm that manages Army homes at Fort Eustis and Fort Story is launching a $12.2 million project to install new energy-efficient systems in more than 1,000 homes on the bases.
Work begins this month and should be completed by next fall, Joint Base Langley Eustis announced.
Balfour Beatty Communities contracted with ENGIE Services U.S., a California-based firm, to install new heating and air conditioning systems and modern thermostats as well as humidity-sensing bathroom exhaust fans, LED lighting, improvements to water systems and weatherization sealing.
The updates “will make the homes more comfortable to live in, reduce mechanical outages, and standardize equipment across the portfolio which will reduce operating and maintenance costs,” Joint Base Langley Eustis said.
The project will be financed with savings to the Army on its energy bill, through the federal government’s self-funding Energy Savings Performance Contract.
These contracts slate some of the money a federal agency saves on its energy bills over time as payments to a firm that installs energy saving equipment or systems, including new solar facilities.
With those payments promised, the energy services firm, in turn, can borrow the often-large lump sums needed for that equipment and those systems, paying the lender back over time with those performance contract payments.
For Army contracts, the mandatory savings required must exceed the payments to the energy firm, and the savings must be measured and verified regularly, the Army Corps of Engineers says.
The Fort Eustis and Fort Story project is financed by Hannon Armstrong, an Annapolis firm that invests in climate change projects including providing capital for energy efficiency systems and renewable energy facilities.
“This project will bring immediate upgrades to critical systems in the homes of military families at Fort Eustis and Fort Story,” said Mark Lavin, executive vice president for Balfour Beatty Communities, which has formed the Fort
“This project will bring immediate upgrades to critical systems in the homes of military families...”
Eustis Family Homes/Fort Story Family Homes partnership with the Army, under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative.
“Using an innovative financing approach has allowed us to deliver significant economic and environmental benefits to our communities and we look forward to extending this initiative to our other Army housing projects in the near
—Mark Lavin, executive vice president for Balfour Beatty Communities
future,” he said in a statement.