Horsham Air Guard Station Unveils Training Center

Months before 75 percent of would close its doors to military operations forever, the federal government was building a $16.5 million home for 715 Army Reservists. 

The Army Reserve’s 99th Regional Support Command held a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday for a 73,000-square-foot building on a portion of the roughly 240 acres which comprise the .

The training facility, which was finished in June 2011, according to a press release on the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System Web site, will be home to soldiers from a number of various Reserve units under the Army Reserve’s Legal Command, 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, 412th Engineer Command, 200th Military Police Command, 3rd Medical Command and 11th Aviation Command.

In addition to the training center, other new additions include an organizational maintenance shop with approximately 16,500 square feet, and an unheated storage building with approximately 5,500 square feet. 

According to the release, the 99th Regional Support Command acts as a "virtual installation" to provide world-class base operations support to more than 51,000 Army Reserve soldiers, 400 units and 300 facilities for the entire Northeast region from Maine to Virginia for the Army Reserve.

The training center will also be used by Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers and will house reservists who previously trained at facilities in Willow Grove, Norristown, Philadelphia, Chester, as well as the shuttered Horsham Memorial Army Reserve Center situated on Route 611, across the street from the air base, according to a phillyburbs.com article. 

The Horsham Land Reuse Authority - the local entity which - last month for  to . 

Plans for 862 acres of what, until last September, had been known as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove, are undergoing federal government review. The mixed-use redevelopment - which is expected to take 25 years or more to build out - includes more than 1,400 homes, 40 acres for a middle school, more than 100 acres of open space, an expanded museum for the , a town center, business parks and more. 

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