Reserve deputy chief talks up new Florida center

Reserve deputy chief talks up new Fla. center
By Don Ruane - The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press
Posted : Sunday May 1, 2011

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — An Army Reserve training center to be built in north Cape Coral is a $14.5 million investment that will create 20 to 30 jobs and help local businesses, the deputy chief of the national Army Reserve said Saturday after a tour of the city.

Maj. Gen. Keith L. Thurgood toured the 15-acre training center site on Corbett Road at Diplomat Parkway while in town to address the gathering of the Florida Reserve Officers Association at The Resort at Marina Village.

The construction contract for the center is going out for bids in September. Completion is expected in 2013. The site is on Corbett Road at Diplomat Parkway. A $132-million, four-story Veterans Affairs Clinic is going up just across Corbett Road and is expected to open in 2012. The Reserve wants to look for ways to collaborate with the clinic, Thurgood said.

He said he also is impressed with the city’s efforts to spur more development in the area, which is called the Veterans Investment Zone. The zone is a one-mile circle around the clinic where special incentives are available from the city to entice developers.

Some 300 reservists will pass through the center each year, but they will stay in local hotels at the end of each day, dine at local restaurants and visit local attractions, Thurgood said. The training center also will need the services of local landscapers, plumbers, electricians and others.

“Our soldiers are involved in communities all the time,” Thurgood said at a news conference after inspecting the rehabilitation work on the Iwo Jima flag-raising statue at Four Mile Cove Eco Preserve.

There are 11,000 Army reservists in Florida and they have an annual economic impact of $200 million, Thurgood said.
read more here
Reserve deputy chief talks up new Fla. center