U.S. Army names GMH property managers in Jersey.

GMH Communities Trust, through its military housing division, announced recently that it has been appointed by the U.S. Department of the Army to provide property management and maintenance services for the military family housing at Carlisle Barracks and Picatinny Arsenal, located in Carlisle, Pa. and Dover, N.J.

These locations currently encompass 316 family housing units at the Carlisle Barracks and 113 family housing units at Picatinny Arsenal. The company commenced providing property management and maintenance services at the two installations on May 1, 2006, when one of its subsidiaries entered into agreements with the Army, including a 50-year ground lease for the purpose of owning and managing the housing inventory at the two installations.

Under the agreements, the company will receive fees for the provision of management and maintenance services at these installations. The company currently performs similar services at 19 other military installations throughout the United States through joint ventures with the Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy.

The company is currently negotiating with a third-party lender to finance the construction of new units and the renovation and demolition of some of the existing housing units at both Carlisle Barracks and Picatinny Arsenal. Subject to completion of project financing, which is expected to be obtained in the third quarter of 2006, the housing privatization project at the two installations is expected to result in an aggregate of 348 end-state housing units and have a five-year initial development period.

Bruce Robinson, president of the company's military housing division said, "We are pleased that the Department of the Army has shown their confidence in our company to provide the same quality management and maintenance services that we are providing to numerous other Army bases throughout the country. We look forward to completing the financing and beginning the process of improving the housing for our deserving soldiers and their families."

Congressionally authorized since 1996, the Military Housing Privatization Initiative allows the Department of Defense, and the Department of the Army (via its Residential Communities Initiative (RCI)--Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment), to work with the private sector to upgrade the quality of family housing and operate and maintain that housing. The family housing assets are typically leveraged with private investment to accomplish housing construction and renovation goals faster and at a lower cost than military construction.