Secretary of Defense William Perry announced that the Department of Defense has
let a contract with American Housing Technologies, Inc. (AHT) to convert
Russian former defense capabilities to provide up to 500 housing units for
demobilized officers in Russia. The contract worth $24,999,147 was awarded on
June 7. DoD portion will be $19,999,954 and AHT is providing $4,999,193. The
assistance is provided under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
AHT is a consortium of eight U.S. firms (Habersham Trade Management, Atlanta;
Georgia-Pacific, Augusta, Ga.; Design House, Germantown, Wis.; Unitech Building
Systems, Florida; Interstate General Company, Washington, D.C.; Post Buckley
International, West Palm Beach, Fl.; Sigal International, Washington, D.C.;
Kilpatrick and Cody, Atlanta) which was brought together for projects in the
newly independent states of Russia, Belarus, Kazakahstan, and Ukraine. Seven
of the firms have prior experience in those countries and AHT currently has an
existing project to design and build 1,600 units in Romania.
The AHT consortium will convert capability at three Russian defense plants
which formerly produced weapons of mass destruction, NPO Soyuz, NPO Kompozit
and NPO Mashinostroyeniya, to produce housing for demobilized Russian officers.
AHT and the three Russian defense enterprises will form a Joint Venture later
this year for production, marketing, sales and construction.
A key aspect of the project will be converting the plants to the production of
prefabricated housing and housing components. In addition, Russian military
and defense enterprise personnel will receive training in the manufacture,
construction and marketing of pre-fabricated housing. Training will be
completed by January 1996. Factory conversions will be finished in March 1996,
with the first units ready in April.
Once full production is achieved, the plant will produce 43 housing units per
month. The Joint Venture will provide foundations and utility hook-ups, while
Russian Ministry of Defense will provide land and infrastructure requirements.
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The total cost of the units will be approximately $30,000. The cost to the
U.S. government is $26,000 per unit. The difference will be paid by AHT as
part of the U.S. government/private industry cost sharing agreement. The Joint
Venture will actively pursue privately financed housing projects in the Moscow
area.
This venture represents an important cooperative project among the U.S.
government, the Russian Ministry of Defense and private enterprise from both
nations.
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