The Pentagon is getting ready to start building a new major headquarters in Milwaukee, but some of its biggest priorities are still a ways off.
While construction of a $2.9 billion facility at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and South Milwaukee Avenue is set to begin in the spring, it will take up to five years for the project to be completed, officials said Wednesday.
That’s because the project will require a major renovation of the existing Pentagon complex, which is under construction, officials at the Milwaukee County Executive’s office told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The county, which has been pushing to make the new headquarters more efficient, also has been considering a $1 billion overhaul of the nearby Naval Postgraduate School, which was the first to be opened to the public in 1872.
It would require $1.4 billion to renovate the school, which will be open until 2031, according to county officials.
Officials at the Pentagon said they have been looking at how to use the space at the old facility, which houses some of the nation’s most elite military and intelligence personnel, for decades.
The building is used by the National Security Agency and other U.S. government agencies, as well as the Defense Department, as a training and recruitment center for foreign military and civilian troops.
The Pentagon has a number of other facilities in the Milwaukee area, including the Marine Corps Training Center, where the Marine reserves train Marines for service in the Marine infantry.
The Wisconsin Army National Guard is also looking to use its facility to train veterans for the Marine reserve, officials told the Journal Sentinel in a news release.
The Milwaukee County Office of the County Executive will oversee the use of the Milwaukee National Guard facility for the county’s Veterans of Foreign Wars, officials with the office said.
The construction of the new facility will be one of the biggest projects in the state’s history.
The site was chosen after a private developer pitched it as a solution for the state to attract business.
That developer is known as Milwaukee Group, which in turn hired an outside firm to develop a plan.
The plan calls for an 80,000-square-foot complex with four buildings and nearly 1 million square feet of office space.
The project would be a $9.5 billion project with an estimated $3 billion construction cost.
