An area that was once a Cold War-era missile base in the Miramar wetlands will now become a home for the Florida Army National Guard.
The 300-acre site is along Flamingo Road just south of the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike. Following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the property served as a Nike defense missile site until it was decommissioned in 1979. The property was then handed over by the U.S. government to the Florida National Guard, but it has remained vacant until now.
In developing the property, the National Guard has two goals: create a training facility and replace aging armories in Hollywood and northwest Miami-Dade County. The Hollywood armory, which is in an urban area, dates to about 1955. The other facility, which is adjacent to Miami-Dade College, is nearly as old.
“As cities have sprung up in Hollywood and Miami where these armories are, they’re not really compatible with the community,” said Jon Myatt, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Military Affairs.
The site has remained dormant for so long because funding wasn’t available for any project. But the need for a new facility has increased as the two smaller armories continue to age.
“Military construction money is tight, and the National Guard has to compete for those dollars,” Myatt said.
The National Guard’s plan is to use 200 acres on the site to create the Snake Creek Readiness Center. The remaining 100 acres, which are naturally divided by the Snake Creek Canal, will be used for private development. The development of the entire site is part of an experimental government-private partnership, said Lt. Col. William Harding.
Under an enhanced use lease, a private developer will construct the center and develop its own property for commercial use. Those commercial uses could include hotels or restaurants for soldiers to use when they’re in town.
“We want to fit in as an asset to the community,” Harding said.
For more on this, see this Sunday’s (March 15) Community News inside the Sun Sentinel.
