Officials from Hill Air Force Base and Sunset Ridge Development Partners LLC hosted a ribbon cutting and groundbreaking ceremony Jan. 18.
The event celebrated the completion of a brand new building for the 75th Security Forces Squadron and the ceremonial groundbreaking of a new commercial office building that will be built on the base's west side.
The Team Hill Junior Force Council hosted its 2011 Speaker Series at the Base Theater on April 27.
Darrin Wray, Falcon Hill's Enhanced Use Lease Program Manager, was the keynote speaker and provided valuable information on Falcon Hill.
"In 2001 Congress provided authority for the Department of Defense to take un-utilized property and lease it out to a developer in exchange for some type of return," said Wray. "Falcon Hill will be approximately 550 acres on the western edge of Hill Air Force Base, and the master development agreement was signed in Aug. 2008."
Team Hill has lost a key member of the prominent expansion project which has been set to transform the West Gate area to become the Falcon Hill National Aerospace Research Development Park. Bruce Evans, chief of the Enhanced Use Lease program management office, died Jan. 29 of cancer. Evans had held the EUL position since May of 2007.
The Enhanced Use Lease program management office, the first of its kind in the Air Force, manages "for value" real estate transactions as well as Hill AFB-controlled land dedicated to commercial use under special legislation.