After welcoming their young son into the world less than two weeks ago, Spc. Jordan McGrew and his wife, Isabella, are bringing him into a new home in Arapahoe Village on Fort Carson.
"The timing of this was amazing," McGrew said.
The McGrew family of five will be among the first to move into 56 new townhomes on Fort Carson, representing the first phase of the rebuilt Arapahoe Village. So far, 16 townhomes are complete, a Fort Carson official said.
The townhouse is part of a neighborhood that will eventually have 477 homes when it is fully built out, said Gen. David Doyle, Fort Carson's commanding general. During a celebration of the new homes, Doyle said, the base's motto, "The Best Hometown in the Army" is built on action.
"Action like this carries a lot of weight," Doyle said.
Across Army bases with privatized housing Fort Carson has come in last for residential satisfaction for three years. It’s a trend base leadership is determined to turn around.
The first 56 townhomes are expected to be complete in September, said Theresa Steele, the vice president of project management for Balfour Beatty Communities. The company owns and operates homes on Fort Carson and housing across about 55 military bases.
The timeline for the full buildout of the project is unknown because the company is in the process of extending its ground lease another 25 years, Steele said. The longer lease will allow the company to obtain funding necessary to build the additional homes.
For the growing family, the new home will offer more space for their toddler Kora to play and relieve the young couple of the stress of an aging home, McGrew said.
He said the three years the family spent in an aging brick townhouse was filled with calls for maintenance issues such as clogged drains and broken gates. The home will also be easier to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer, he said. The homes with three to four bedrooms come with other modern features, such as walk-in closets, attached garages and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
"They're a million times better," McGrew said of the new townhomes. The family hopes to spend about a year in their new home.
Home maintenance has been an ongoing issue across Fort Carson for years, but the responsiveness of the Fort Carson Family Homes, run by Balfour Beatty is improving, Garrison Commander Col. Erik Oksenvaag said.
An Army deputy chief of staff charged with modernizing installations and improving quality of life toured Fort Carson this week and found some room for improvement with housing, but noted the Army has no plans to move away from housing contractor and maintenance provider Balfour Beatty Communities.
During the summer of 2022, the Fort Carson Family Homes had over 7,000 work orders, and that's now down to about 500, he said. Part of that improvement was driven by better retention among Balfour Beatty's maintenance teams, he said.
The amount of time tenants spend away from their homes for repairs has also dropped from about 17 days three years ago to less than 10 days, he said.
Part of the challenge for maintenance teams is old infrastructure with 1,500 homes built between 1954 and 1973, Oksenvaag said. The base has 3,200 homes for soldiers. About 80% of the base's population lives off-post in the community, he said.
Oksenvaag said the relationship with Balfour Beatty is improving, and they are focusing on maintaining homes between tenants.
"They've been very transparent and taken a very collaborative approach with us here at Fort Carson," he said.
© 2025 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Visit www.gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
