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CentCom to get much needed room at Tampa base

Central Command unveils a $300-million renovation plan that will add 670,000 square feet to its headquarters by 2010.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published September 23, 2006

TAMPA - The nerve center for America's war on terrorism has a conference room with clocks flashing time for Tampa, Zulu, Baghdad, Qatar, Kabul and Islamabad. Bags of trash are out in the halls so they can be inspected and slapped with a sticker showing they contain no sensitive documents.

Even the napkins are official: United States Central Command.

But in this building within MacDill Air Force Base, where combat operations for Iraq and Afghanistan are directed, 20 to 25 engineers are crammed into a room that can barely hold them as they draw up plans used in the war effort.

"Nice thing is there's no secrets here," said Navy Capt. Barbara Sisson, CentCom's deputy engineer, while standing by a work station that backs up to the fridge everyone uses.

At CentCom, stairwells serve as storage closets for spare coat racks, couches and air conditioner filters. Coalition military leaders from around the world are stuck in portable trailers; their countries' flags flying atop them. The power system is maxed out, and air conditioning and e-mail sometimes have had to be cut off to conserve power, Sisson said.

In 1995, just 900 people worked at CentCom. Now, 4,000 work there, doubled and tripled-up, overflowing into portables as far as a mile from headquarters. The Air Force thinks there should be 135 gross square feet for each person's work station.

CentCom has just 90 square feet.

On Friday, CentCom publicly unveiled a $300-million construction and renovation effort that will add 670,000 square feet to its headquarters over the next four years.

The building boom is a testament to the war on terrorism, which flooded MacDill with additional personnel after Sept. 11, 2001. It's also an important financial commitment to the base from the government, and should allay some of the constant fears of nearby businesses that the base is next on the congressional chopping block.

Already, bulldozers plow land for the four-story Joint Intelligence Center that will house 1,300. A three-story addition to CentCom headquarters is next up, and will more than double its size. Other smaller buildings, a utility plant and a parking garage are on paper, too, in the multiphase project that relies on congressional funding.

Only a portion of the money needed has been approved, and CentCom's disclosure of future plans and current problems Friday seemed aimed at informing elected leaders, as well as the public, of the project's importance.

"Hopefully Congress will see fit to fund these projects," Sisson said.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, said $67-million has already been approved, and the bulk of the remaining funding should be approved within the next two years.

"Absolutely, we'll follow through to complete the project," said Young, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. "No doubt about it."

The first building won't be ready to occupy for about two years. Until then, Sisson said, CentCom will make do as it has. Expensive and essential communication gear will remain on flood-prone first floors. But an uninterrupted power system installed this month will ensure that power keeps flowing into CentCom around the clock. Fiber optic cables will be stretched to portables to corral nomadic CentCom personnel.

"Electronically, we're connected, but at expense," Sisson said.

And more leased portable trailers could be on the way.

Justin George can be reached at (813) 226-3368 or jgeorge@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 00:59:44]