Ground broken for AF conference center

  • Published
  • By Ben Newell
  • AFDW Public Affairs
AIR FORCE DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON --  Andrews Air Force Base, Md., took another step towards becoming the destination of choice for military brass flying in and out of the National Capital Region with the groundbreaking of a state-of-the-art conference center May 20. 

The new conference center is officially known as the Strategic Planning and Development Facility. It cost approximately $29 million, is almost 48,000 square feet in size and will be completed in January 2011. 

There was no center similar to this in the National Capitol Region. The new facility mirrors the conference center at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
 
The center - the second of its kind in the Air Force - will provide high-level officials with a conference facility that has cutting edge, integrated communications technology in league with the most advanced facilities world-wide. 

Planning for the facility began in 2003 with the recognition that Andrews was used as a fly-in, fly-out spot for senior military and U.S. government officials, but there was no similar center in proximity to the Andrews flight line.