If the U.S. Navy isn’t going to rebuild the 166 apartments it abandoned 20 years ago and demolished in 2021, perhaps the city can lease those 18 acres from the Navy and finally make some housing happen there again.
Commissioner Donie Lee will propose such a partnership at the Feb. 4 city commission meeting when he introduces a resolution that asks the Navy to grant the city a long-term lease for the 18 acres at Sigsbee Park, where the 166 townhome-style residences formerly housed service members and their families — until 2005, when Hurricane Wilma flooded them.
The units then sat abandoned and unlivable until 2021, when the Navy demolished them.
For 20 years, as Key West’s affordable housing crisis intensified, officials have repeatedly asked the Navy to rebuild the Sigsbee housing, as it would enable the military to house more of its own people and reduce the demand and competition for the limited affordable, long-term rentals in Key West and the Lower Keys.
“Navy personnel, and civilians who are employed by the Navy, comprise a substantial segment of the population in Key West that occupy or require long-term workforce housing,” states one of the city’s earlier resolutions asking the Navy to replace its Sigsbee housing. “By providing new and improved housing on base, the inventory of available long-term rentals in the city of Key West may become more readily available to non-military families.”
Commissioner Sam Kaufman in 2016 spearheaded a similar request for the return of the Sigsbee housing units, writing a letter to then-U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo.
Local commanders of Naval Air Station Key West have been unanimous in recognizing the city’s and Navy’s housing challenges, but the decision to rebuild is above their pay grade and requires reams of bureaucratic approvals.
The Navy’s long-term partnership with Balfour Beatty, the private company that manages its military housing worldwide, also complicates housing decisions and action.
“The Navy has options other than Balfour Beatty, when it comes to housing partnerships; that’s what I want to point out,” Lee told the Keys Weekly on Jan. 28. “We’ve had a lease with the Navy for the Outer Mole Pier for decades, so this type of arrangement isn’t unprecedented. This resolution isn’t intended to be adversarial in any way, but I do think there’s a good opportunity for a partnership that would help both the city and the Navy.”
And he’s hoping the timing may finally be right for action.
Vice Admiral Scott Gray, commander of the Naval Installations Command, recently sent a contingent of real estate agents and other advisers to Key West to explore the NAS Key West facilities and housing, Lee said. Gray oversees the Navy’s shoreside facilities, including base housing.
If a lease can be reached between the city and the Navy for the 18 acres at Sigsbee, its purpose would be “to provide workforce housing supporting the military on a priority basis, with support to federal/state and local governments and the public on a space-available basis, thereby increasing military mission effectiveness, creating efficiencies in housing support, and economies of scale to provide the lowest possible housing rates while meeting required housing standards,” the resolution states.
In other words, if the Navy and city can partner to rebuild housing on Sigsbee, priority would be given to military personnel, but remaining units would also be available to other government workers and other working residents.
If the proposed resolution passes on Feb. 4, Lee wants copies sent to Gray, as well as U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody and Capt. Beth Regoli, commander of Naval Air Station Key West.
