Elementary and high school pupils in Vicenza, Italy, have learned lessons in this building since 1957. But, with more children headed to the community along with their military parents, a new elementary school is being planned in the Villagio housing complex nearby. (Kent Harris / Stars and Stripes)
VICENZA, Italy — Hundreds of soldiers would have new homes and a new school for their children under a construction project being planned for northern Italy.
The U.S. government has asked Italian entrepreneurs if they’d like to participate in a build-to-lease agreement that would create 215 housing units for American military families in or around Vicenza by the end of 2008. And the Department of Defense Dependents Schools system, expecting to see hundreds of pupils arriving in the next few years, hopes to build an elementary school in the community’s only military family housing complex.
The build-to-lease program — the first in the community’s history — “is something that’s been on-again, off-again for about five years,” said Steven Lindell, chief of family housing for the 22nd Area Support Group.
Even though hundreds of troops are expected to be moved into northern Italy under current military transformation plans, the construction project is geared more to solving current conditions, said Ilsa Merryman, chief of real estate for Installation Management Agency-Europe.
“It really doesn’t have anything to do with transformation,” she said, adding that the housing situation has been a concern for several years. “Prior to ’98, we were always able to satisfy housing requirements.”
Lindell said an independent housing analysis survey conducted last year determined that Vicenza doesn’t have enough four- and five-bedroom dwellings to meet the needs of Americans.
“Even three bedrooms in the size requirement are difficult to find,” he said.
So the U.S. government is looking to get an Italian developer to “design, finance and construct housing on private land within the bidder’s exclusive control,” according to an information paper put together by the IMA-Europe’s real estate division.
In return, the United States would lease all the units for 10 years, with an option for an additional 20 years. Similar build-to-lease agreements are already in place for the Air Force in communities around Aviano Air Base and for the Navy around Naples. The desire is to have all the units in Vicenza located within a 30-minute commute of Caserma Ederle.
Officials met with some Italian developers Thursday. According to the information paper, proposals would be submitted no later than July, which would then be evaluated both locally and by Congress.
A possible deal could be reached by mid-2006, with construction to begin and “a proposed occupancy date not later than October of 2008,” according to the paper.
Lindell said 80 percent of soldiers with families live on the economy, with the remaining 20 percent living in either quarters leased by the U.S. government or the 373-unit Villagio housing complex a few miles from Caserma Ederle.
Margret Menzies, a public affairs officer for the 22nd ASG, referred questions on the school situation to DODDS.
Wayne Hartmann, chief of the facilities and security branch for DODDS-Europe, said Villagio is the location that the school system is eyeing not only for a new elementary school, but for eventual complexes for middle and high school students as well.
The schools have been located in the same building since 1957, and the building served other purposes before then. Hartmann said the number of new pupils expected is “well in excess of the capacity of the existing schools.”
The latest plan calls for a new elementary school in Villagio for about 1,000 pupils. Hartmann said the most optimistic timetable would be for the first classes there to be held in 2009.
Construction of such a facility would require tearing down some houses in the complex, Hartmann said. But that wouldn’t take place for several years.
