HP Communities Takes Over $243M Air Force Housing Redevelopment

HP Communities–a joint venture of Hunt Development Group and Pinnacle AMS Development–has negotiated a contract with the U.S. Air Force under which HP will take over the construction, development and management of 3,689 family homes at four military bases in the United States. The four bases, called The Falcon Group, are: Moody Air Force Base in Georgia; Patrick Air Force Base in Florida; Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts; and Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Hunt Development Group, a family owned company founded in 1947 and headquartered in El Paso, Texas, is currently building and developing more than 86,000 housing units in the United States, and of these, 68,000 are for the military. The company has completed military housing projects in 38 states. Pinnacle Development specializes in the privatization of military housing. Pinnacle AMS Management, with 5,000 employees in 42 states, manages portfolios valued at more than $18 billion. The Pinnacle Portfolio includes more than 175,000 housing units, and more than 28,000 of these are military homes. M. Scott Orrantia (pictured), managing director at Pinnacle Development, told CPN, “The majority of the units at The Falcon Group are town homes. These four bases got off track with a previous developer, and we stepped in and negotiated a purchase of the [work at] these four bases from the previous owners and the Air Force, in conjunction with the bondholders. We wanted to make sure that these renovations and the new construction would be put under way again, because the military deserves quality homes and quality management.” Pinnacle will provide the property management services, Hunt will be responsible for the asset management, Hunt Building Co., an affiliate, will provide design, and Spectrum Land Planning of Simi Valley, Calif., will work together with Gile-Buck Architects of Boise, Idaho, to provide architecture and the landscape planning for all of the communities. Construction is scheduled to begin in April of next year, with the projected costs now at $243 million. This not the first joint venture for Pinnacle and Hunt, who have been working together for about four years. The two companies are currently developing and building family housing at a several military bases in the country, including: the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana; Langley Air Force Base in Virginia; Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.; Dover Air Force Base in Delaware; Fort Lee in Virginia; Scott Air Force Base in Illinois; and Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Orrantia also reported a new contract with the Army in Korea. “We were selected by the Army from amongst the fierce competition to enter into exclusive negotiation for the first large-scale privatized military housing outside of the continental United States. We anticipate the project will be closing sometime in June 2009.” Along with Samsung, Hunt and Pinnacle will design, finance, build and operate the Army Garrison Humphreys Housing Opportunity Project, to provide community and housing for some 2,400 families assigned to a base about 55 miles south of Seoul. The private/community contract is scheduled to last for 50 years, and projected to cost $1.3 billion. Orrantia acknowledged that there are still a lot of details to be worked out.