Legislators hear of cost of taking over Fort Monroe

RICHMOND

Virginia will lose $4 million to $5 million annually for the first few years after it takes control of the Fort Monroe property in Hampton from the U.S. Army, a state official told House leaders Friday.

Federal officials decided to close the base in 2005; it will become state property when the Army vacates in 2011. The 570-acre property is planned for redevelopment as for residential and commercial uses, and preserved as a historic site.

“For the first five years we expect to be run a deficit,” state Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. told the House Appropriations committee. “By 2017, we’ll be turning a 'so-called’ profit.”