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Director's experience ideal for Fort MonroeWilliam Armbruster says he wants the post to continue to be a "living community.By Matthew Sturdevant | 247-7874 HAMPTON — Asked about all the live artillery and shells in Fort Monroe's soil, William A. Armbruster nodded knowingly. He's familiar with environmental issues at military bases, including microscopic shrimp at one base and radiated horse carcasses found on the grounds of an Army hospital. Environmental concerns are one of many considerations in the future use of Monroe, which Armbruster will oversee as new executive director of the Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority. Armbruster replaces interim Executive Director Conover Hunt. Armbruster, 72 — who signed a three-year contract for $150,000 a year — "emerged as one of the top two candidates," said Robert Harper, a member of the four-member committee that oversaw the hiring of a new executive director. Armbruster's job, essentially, is to piece together a complicated puzzle of politics, logistics and bureaucracy to plan a future use for Monroe. As part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, the Army plans to close Fort Monroe by September 2011. The challenge after that is arranging for Monroe to be open to the public, yet still raise enough money to pay for annual expenditures, including maintenance of a hamlet of historic buildings and moated fortress. The military base on the Chesapeake Bay off Hampton has attracted interest from those who see business opportunity at Monroe and those who want to see it as a national park. The authority has an 18-member board that includes appointees of Hampton, Virginia's House of Delegates and Senate, and governor's Cabinet. The authority is charged with studying, planning and recommending the best use of facilities at the post once the property transfers to the state in 2011. It's guided by three points: keep Monroe open to the public, respect the rich history and advance economic sustainability. Armbruster is familiar with widespread interest in the future of former military bases. He spent the past six years as deputy secretary of the Army for privatization and partnerships. A big part of his job involved overseeing the privatization of residential housing for the Army by transferring deeds of buildings — but not the land — in exchange for restoration and renovations. The Army put in about $970million in equity — the housing — in return for about $9.8billion in private capital, almost a 10-to-1 return. Armbruster said housing wasn't one of the Army's primary goals, which is why it made sense to privatize. "There were always higher priority for those dollars," he said of the Army's budget to maintain housing. While deputy secretary, Armbruster encouraged cooperation between administrators at Army posts and nearby communities, so they could share services or promote each other. He also was in charge of the Office of Historic Properties, meaning all buildings of historic value owned by the Army. His experience was exactly what the Fort Monroe authority was looking for, said L. Preston Bryant Jr., the authority's chairman. And Armbruster has arrived at a particularly active time in the planning. In the next 90 days, the Army and the authority are expected to agree to a list of management guidelines for maintaining the historic integrity of Monroe. The authority will also receive a study of tourism opportunities at the post and an analysis of annual operating costs. Both reports will be incorporated into a tentative reuse plan. All the more reason for a three-year contract. "We have so much going on," Bryant said. "We needed a long-term commitment." Armbruster has a background that includes working on the civilian and Army side of the Base Realignment and Closure process. As an Army deputy secretary, he worked with 25 military installations affected by BRAC. In the mid-1990s, he was a town councilman and businessman in Blackstone who worked on an adaptive reuse of Fort Pickett. He was executive director of a five-county reuse authority for Pickett and the Fort Pickett Redevelopment Authority. Armbruster said he was successful in bringing the Virginia National Guard to Pickett and other operations, such as a business incubator, several small businesses and satellite operations for universities. Looking around Fort Monroe, he said there were a lot of possibilities that balanced the goals of keeping it open to the public and making enough money to pay the bills. "There will be no shortage of interested parties," he said. "This is a living community now, and we want it to be a living community." William A. Armbruster
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