Albrook has become the local model for
successful, wide-ranging conversion of transferred military bases to full
economic use and done so within the first five years since its transfer to
Panama in September 1997.
Today concentrated at Albrook are air and
land transportation centers (Marcos A. Gelabert commercial airport for
domestic flights and a major national bus terminal), commercial services and retail
stores, light industries, governmental activities (including the Civil
Aeronautics Authority -- formerly Civil Aeronautics Directorate or DAC, a
new Nautical School, the National Environmental Authority (ANAM), and the Office
of the First Lady of the Republic of Panama), secondary and higher
education institutions (Saint Mary Academy, Specialized University of the
Americas, Nova Southeastern University, and Atenea Institute/Pan Helenica-Panamanian
Educational Center), the new seat of the Supreme Courts of the Americas,
and, in the near future, the Russian Embassy, which is to be constructed
at Albrook.
In addition, construction of new shopping
centers and housing
areas (first Green Valley, then Albrook Gardens, and more recently Albrook
Park Apartments, with construction of another apartment complex The
Village due to start soon) and the extensive
remodeling of many of the houses by their new owners had generated
considerable new employment opportunities, though many temporary
construction projects.
Ninety percent of the transferred buildings
and lands of Albrook had been converted to public and private use within
the first 15 months following transfer of Albrook Air Force Station (by
the end of 1998 and the remaining since then), including the selling of
over 400 family housing units through public auction, according to the
Panamanian Interoceanic Region Authority (ARI). Many of the houses have
been extensively remodeled by their new owners. A
retirement community in one of the existing residential areas has been
established for retirees with sources of income from abroad (primarily
U.S. retirees from the U.S. military and the former Panama Canal
Commission).
Not only has it been such a success for
Panama, but could also be considered an exemplary conversion of a former military base in
the context of the five rounds of the Base Realignment and Closure
Commission (BRAC) process in the United States since 1988, with the fifth
having occurred in 2005. (The closing of the U.S. military bases in
Panama was not part of the BRAC process but a requirement of the Panama
Canal Treaty of 1977 which mandated termination of U.S. military presence
in Panama by December 31, 1999).
More details on Albrook today on the
following pages.
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