From the Philly Inquirer:
A major planning effort aims at recycling Fort Monmouth
The Army will withdraw from Fort Monmouth by September 2011, ending nearly a century in which it became a major economic force in New Jersey.
Five years might seem like a long time, but the people charged with finding post-Army uses for the fort’s 1,100 acres feel they’re already racing the clock.
At stake is the future of a sprawling area that lies along one of the Jersey shore’s commercial corridors, Route 35, and touches scenic waterways.
No one expects the entire base, whose current mission includes high-tech communications work, to have new functions up and running by 2011. But Eatontown Mayor Gerry Tarantolo hopes some of the land will have a non-military use by then.
Eatontown, one of three municipalities that has territory within fort boundaries, formulated a plan years ago to redevelop a portion of the fort, where more than 400 units of military housing have been vacant since the early 1990s.
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The fort is important to the state – its payroll for nearly 6,000 workers approaches $500 million – and its overall economic impact is estimated at $2.5 billion annually by the state Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission. That includes money spent locally by workers, and support jobs that involve about 22,000 people.Redevelopment could provide an even larger impact, said Virginia S. Bauer, CEO and secretary of the state commission. “This is very unique, in that these 1,100 acres are just extremely well-located pieces of real estate,” said Bauer, who also is vice chair of the planning authority.
Although final decisions on what will replace the fort are years away, officials are staking hopeful claims to parts of the fort that they want to preserve.
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The fort has 5,088 civilian employees and 467 military personnel. About 80 people, in such areas as public works and emergency services, will not be transferred. Of positions that will be continuing, 25 percent have said they will relocate and 39 percent are undecided, said fort spokesman Timothy Rider.