Fort Belvoir Commissary

Hoar Construction served as the general contractor for the new commissary at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The facility was developed by the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) and was constructed to achieve LEED Silver Certification.

The Fort Belvoir Commissary project includes the construction of a 141,000 square-foot commissary to serve active military personnel, retirees, and their families stationed in the Fort Belvoir area. The commissary is constructed on the site of the former Exchange Facility, which required extensive site clearing and grading to prepare for the new facility. The new commissary is one of the largest of DeCA’s 284 commissaries worldwide.

Before we began preparing the site, we were notified that a protected species of migratory bats lived on the property, and we would need to protect their environment. Working with the environmental agency, we learned it would be critical to get the property ready within one week; otherwise, we would have to wait four months so we would not disturb the bats during their mating season. With an aggressive schedule, but a need to protect the environment, we worked closely with the agency to develop a plan for doing both. Our team cut the trees on the property but didn’t remove them. By laying them down in the same location, they could serve as a habitat for the bats while we carefully worked around them to prepare other parts of the site. While this wasn’t part of our initial schedule, careful planning allowed us to keep things moving for DeCA.