Four Star Luxury Includes $1.4M Grounds Improvements, $300K Party Rooms
By
Bob Brewin
While many taxpayers struggle to make home mortgage payments, the Army requested more than $2 million in its 2012 budget to lease, maintain and improve luxury housing for just three four-star officers.
This includes $1.4 million for grounds renovations at a palatial house in Stuttgart, Germany and $300,000 to "adequately size the official entertainment space" within the Coral Gables, Fla., home of Air Force General Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), according to the report on the 2012 Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill released last week.
Army spokesman George Wright said the service has withdrawn the $1.4 million budget request for grounds renovations at the Stuttgart House. Wright said the Army did not request funds to modify the entertainment area of that Coral Gables home.
The Army has not yet confirmed for me who resides in the mansion at 39 Richard Wagner Strasse, Stuttgart, Germany. (Google view here.)
There's even more folks -- the Army also forks over $15,421 a month, or $185,052 a year, to lease another mansion in Belgium, the headquarters of NATO.
I'm waiting for the Army to get back to me on who lives in the Belgium mansion. The Army serves as the executive agent for all these joint commands, which is why it's stuck with the four star housing bill.
The Army does not even own the Coral Gables home. The City of Coral Gables purchased the house -- located in the country club section of the city, next to the Biltmore Golf Course -- in 1999 to serve as a home for the SOUTHCOM commander, and now leases it to the Army at a cost of $5,600 a month or $67,200 a year.
Since Florida is a woefully depressed real estate market, why not pick up another mansion in a foreclosure sale?