BushInc didn't maintain Walter Reed because it's worth BILLIONS for developers.

[blm]

Remember when Rumsfeld's Pentagon submitted their intention to close it a couple years ago?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200739.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

No Scarcity Of Suitors For Walter Reed Site
Complex Is Coveted For Its Location, Size
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005; Page E01


The Pentagon's proposal to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington could touch off intense competition for a rare prize: more than 100 acres in a city where real estate values are soaring and space for new development is scarce.

Barely a week after the Pentagon said it planned to close the 96-year-old hospital between Rock Creek Park and Georgia Avenue, real estate brokers, D.C. planners, developers and politicians were laying claim to the property, a sign of the complicated discussions that ensue when the federal government pulls up stakes.

The 113-acre complex is in the middle of an increasingly affluent neighborhood convenient to downtown and also is near the burgeoning commercial area of Silver Spring -- factors that argue for dense residential, retail or office development. But it is also a historic place, where war heroes and presidents have recuperated, and its redevelopment could trigger a preservation fight. And as a federal property, its decommissioning as a military hospital would be governed by tight restrictions, such as that the campus must first be offered to other government agencies.

D.C. officials and neighborhood residents also would want a say.

"What's attractive about Walter Reed is its size," said Thomas R. Maskey, a senior vice president at Peterson Cos., a Northern Virginia developer of mixed-use projects. "There's not 113 acres anywhere around here that's going to be available. The size allows you to do a lot of different things that can really have an impact."

With congressional review of the Pentagon's base-closing plan ahead, it could be years before Walter Reed closes, and it may not happen at all if local officials succeed in blocking the proposed transfer of hospital staff to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County. And it could take years more before a plan for the property took shape.

>>>>>>

[babylonsister]

1. So, screw the soldiers, but pad the pockets of his cronies some more. I

wonder if the land would have been awarded to some entity w/o competition. Nothing would surprise me, but I'd say this is bordering on criminal. Were there any significant plans to replace WR with another, better facility? Now I'm more convinced than ever that Walter Reed needs to be saved for the soldiers, not developers.
Good find, blm.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Now we know where Bush's priorities were all along.

And to think that the right-wing thought he was a better patriot than Al Gore or Kerry. Bush is a total sell-out to every American ideal, except capitalism.

[MADem]

2. 2011. It's built like a frigging fort, too. Even if they tore down the

buildings (and some of them are historic, that would be a shame) the foundations, especially on the main facility are solid as can be. Seriously, it's like a fallout shelter down there.

I am a traditionalist. I think it is wrong to close that facility. It has a lot of history, it is convenient to ANDREWS (and we know the drill with the wounded by now, don't we?) and while it isn't the newest facility in the firmament, it really is well built, and it is amenable to updates--many of the walls are moveable--they anticipated the requirement to change space sizes and fucntions. The rehab area ten years ago was tiny; now they've taken over spaces and made it huge.

If they don't want to keep it, they should give it to the VA, or make it a dual-use facility (VA and regional military medical facility). There's certainly no shortage of customers who will benefit from keeping it open.

[Captain Hilts]

3. The emergency war room - before the Greenbriar - was at WRAMC.

So, it IS built like a fallout shelter.

Two problems:

1) Many of the buildings are considered historic.
2) There is not enough room to accommodate the extra facilities and, most important of all, the extra traffic the extra patients and employees would generate.

[MADem]

4. Well, that big lawn in the front? It ain't a lawn. There's a huge parking

facility underneath it that goes deep and could go deeper. And no reason they can't do like Bethesda--build UP. Before the war, that place never was full. Many patients came in by bus; some from senior facilities that were geared to military retirees, others on public transportation. WRAMC ran a bus, too, that picked people up here and there around DC and dumped them back off again.

They were splitting the diff with Bethesda, with each facility taking on what they did best, and not duplicating--if they continued along those lines, they could do some good medicine. Hell, even get the NIH campus (across from Bethesda) into the game--some of THOSE facilities aren't fully utilized of late. And those are good facilities, as well.

[Captain Hilts]

8. You hit the nail on the head. There isn't that much duplication, so this move...

makes limited sense.

WRAMC is very busy when I go there to donate platelets.

[MADem]

11. Now, it's a beehive of activity. After Gulf One, and before this mess,

it was 'busy' but not overwhelming. You could always find a parking spot, the wait for care wasn't onerous. Now, it's a frigging madhouse--the few times I have been by, the lobby was packed.

[Donnachaidh]

6. Do you really think a building with *history* means a tinker's damn to Bush?

They see dollar signs. That's all.

[MADem]

12. No, but fortunately, he will be gone before the closing date, so there is still hope. NT

[durtee librul]

5. And again folks, I direct

your attention to the soldier's home at 3700 N Capitol St NW. Wanna talk about a plum site for developers? Google it on google earth once and you will see what I mean.

Newtie and gang wanted it for a private senate resort - the repukes wanted to sell it under Clinton (he didn't let them)

And now Bush has 'sold' it to a Catholic University. Wonder who really did get the $$ from that 'sale?'

There would be a story for some enterprising reporter.....

WRH is just the tip of crime, believe me.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. Privatization is a Trojan horse

Time to look again at the "we hate government" neocons. It usually translates to, "We want the tax dollars to line our own pockets."

[bonito]

14. .

[shance]

9. The evil infecting our nation is unspeakable.

Please God help the troops and other victims of this predatory psychopathology.

Is nothing sacred to this greed mongers?

[TahitiNut]

10. "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10)

It's been true for thousands of years.