Fort Carson expansion provides cushion for economy

   The biggest military building program to hit the Pikes Peak region since World War II is being credited with keeping the local economy afloat amid a housing downturn and sagging high-tech employment.

   Hundreds of workers are swinging hammers at a furious pace at Fort Carson as the post prepares for the arrival of thousands of additional soldiers next year. The post will add as many as 12,000 soldiers by 2013, and the Army is getting ready for them by building everything from offices to barracks at the post.

   "Every major construction company that you're aware of is probably working on a job at Fort Carson," said Terry Burns, a planner at the post.

   For business boosters, the onetime influx of federal cash has been a godsend, because every other piece of economic news of late seems dire.

   From high-tech employer Intel pulling 1,200 computer chip manufacturing jobs from Colorado Springs to record-high foreclosure rates in El Paso County, the region's economy seems like it should be in tatters.

   But the more than $2 billion getting spent at Fort Carson has softened the blows.

   "It's a perfect time for it," said Mike Kazmierski, who heads the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation. "To have active construction at that level is very important to our economy in many ways."

   Still, some worry that the increasing reliance on the Defense Department could hurt in the long run, especially if Congress decides to scale back on the billions being spent here.

   "The truth of the matter is, we still need to diversify the economy because the number of troops is at the whim of Congress," said Fred Crowley, an economist who teaches at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

   The region's latest military boom started in 2004, when the Pentagon decided to move nearly 4,000 soldiers to Fort Carson from South Korea.

   That addition snowballed in 2005 when the Army announced it would return the entire 4th Infantry Division to Colorado. More troops have been added since, with the Pentagon promising Fort Carson another 3,600 soldiers last winter.

   The post, which went into the Iraq war in 2003 with fewer than 15,000 troops, is expected to have 30,000 soldiers by 2013.

   Fort Carson officials are racing to prepare for the arrival of nearly 5,000 soldiers next year.

   The troops coming in 2009 are in Iraq serving with the 4th Infantry Division's headquarters and 1st Brigade Combat Team.

   Those troops will start moving here next spring after they come home from fighting in Baghdad, and planners at the post are sweating every detail of the move.

   "It's unbelievable," said Fort Carson planner Bill Davis. "We're having multiple weekly design meetings."
The new division headquarters building is almost finished, and the brigade will have fresh offices, too.

   Hundreds of new barracks rooms are going up so quickly that officials at the post joke about seeing new buildings when they leave work that weren't there in the morning.

   While work on the post continues, local homebuilders and land developers are waiting for the payday that will come when the soldiers start rolling in.

   "We're excited," said Bobby Ingels, a land developer and president of the region's homebuilders association.

   The 15,000 soldiers that have been added to the post since 2003 will bring an estimated 17,500 family members. With less than a third of the troops living on Fort Carson, thousands of them will need to buy or rent a place to live.

   The new faces at Fort Carson could eventually reignite the faltering home construction business, but Ingels and others don't expect a building boom off post.

   "I think the land development community will have plenty of time once it starts to happen to meet the need," Ingels said, noting that there are plenty of houses and apartments available in the region.

   It will, however, help prevent a bust, Ingels said, by shoring up sales of new homes and helping cut the inventory of empty properties throughout the region.

   Planners say the work being done now is enough to meet the immediate needs of the units coming to Fort Carson, but construction workers will remain in high demand at Fort Carson for years to come.

   For at least the next decade, work will continue to make Fort Carson more livable for soldiers and their families. Planners say new chapels, gymnasiums and expansions to dining and shopping areas will come in the future.

   And even more growth could be on the way. The Army is considering adding a helicopter brigade that could bring nearly 2,500 more soldiers to the post.

   Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican, said he's heard no promises, but said the Army wants helicopters at the post so it can properly train the five combat brigades assigned there.

   Every soldier added at Fort Carson can make a significant economic impact in the community, Crowley said.

   "On average, a Fort Carson soldier was making $54,000 per year in pay and allowances," Crowley said. "The impact today is much greater today than it was in the '60s, which is the last time Fort Carson had this many troops.

   "This thing is an economic engine."

   Kazmierski said additional troops translate directly into more jobs in the retail and services businesses in Colorado Springs.

   The military boom, though, must be matched by efforts to bring in private employers to diversify the region's economy, Kazmierski said.

   "It's been a concern for the past 20 years," he said.

   Colorado Springs in the past has seen military busts, most recently in the downsizing following the end of the Cold War.

   Wars end and government policies change, warned Crowley.

   "The worst case scenario is to build all the infrastructure and see the carpet pulled out from under us," Crowley said. 

   CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com