Navy takes next step towards reopening vacant Sigsbee military housing

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

A move towards reopening the 166 vacant military apartments in Sigsbee Park moved forward last month but it could take another year or more before the units are available to help relieve the critical need for affordable housing in Key West.

“Several” developers and contractors met the Oct. 2 deadline for the Request for Interest (RFI) sent out by Naval Air Station Key West this summer, according to public affairs officer Trice Denny. While she wouldn’t say how many contractors submitted an RFI with information on how they would reopen and maintain the property, it was fewer than the 10 companies that did a walk-through of the shuttered Sigsbee Park Annex military housing development on July 12. Still, Denny said, the feedback contained in the RFIs was enough for the Navy to move forward with a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) for the property, which could include renovation and redevelopment of the 166 units as well as managing the rental property once it is reopened to military personnel and their families.

Members of Naval Facilities and Engineering Command Southeast met with local Navy planners to go over the RFI responses on Oct. 18. However, they gave no firm date for when an RFP might go out to contractors.

“They did say they hoped to have the RFP in 2018. That’s the closest they said,” Denny said.

If the RFP isn’t issued until later in 2018, it might take until 2019 for the units to reopen, depending on how much repair and renovation the units need. The apartments have been vacant since August 2010 and are in “caretaker” status, meaning they are empty but being maintained. The Navy wants to lease the buildings to a private company that would make any improvements necessary to bring the units back to livable status. The townhouses would then be rented to junior Department of Defense workforce personnel and their families in the lower Florida Keys.

While talks of reopening Sigsbee first came up in 2015, Key West City Commissioner Sam Kaufman made another push last year when he contacted Congressman Carlos Curbelo’s office asking for help in convincing Navy top brass of the urgency of the issue. He said last week he was disappointed with the proposed RFP timeline.

“I first met with Congressman Curbelo and other federal officials on that site in 2015, so I certainly expected that by now these units would be open for Key West residents to occupy. It makes little sense to have these units unoccupied for so many years given the severe shortage of housing in Key West,” he said.

But the complexity of hiring an outside firm to manage Navy-owned property is a new challenge, Denny said, and the unusual task will take time.

“It’s not a common project that’s been done in the Navy that we know of,” she said. “This one is taking time. It’s a new concept so it’s taking time for us to shape it.”

Back when the idea of reopening the Sigsbee apartments was first broached, then-Navy Air Station Key West commanding officer Capt. Steve McAlearney was receptive to the idea of making the apartments available to active-duty military personnel stationed in the area. But the decision could only be made by top Navy officials. Four state representatives, including Curbelo, sent a letter to then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, urging him to bring the 166 units back on-line “without further delay.” After a feasibility and engineering study was done by the Navy in 2016, it was determined that use of the townhouses was feasible and the long, formal process began.

“Opening the 166 units of Sigsbee by the Navy is more urgently needed now than ever,” Kaufman said. “The local community would greatly benefit as hundreds of individuals could have housing there. The city has consistently urged the Navy to make this happen. I greatly appreciate that they are making strides to open these units.”

Approximately 5,500 active duty and civilian personnel and their dependents or family members currently live in the lower Keys in both off- and on-base housing.

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