"The population of Fort Drum is booming, and two Buffalo-area developers are helping fill a need for more off-post housing.  Clover Construction Management of Amherst and Norstar Development USA of Buffalo have a total of four projects either built or planned in the Watertown area that add up to more than 1,100 apartment and townhome units.  Clover has the largest single project of the four:  a $70 million, 648-unit project called Eagle Ridge Townhomes.  Clover is in the midst of building the first phase, consisting of 218 units, and has opened 20 so far.  Norstar last year opened the 91-unit Starwood Apartments and has two other projects in the works.  Starwood is about 90 percent occupied.  The surge in off-post housing has been fueled by a rising number of troops assigned to Fort Drum, home of the Army's 10th Mountain Division.  A study commissioned a few years ago determined that following the addition of third brigade to Fort Drum, there was a need for 2,000 units of additional off-base housing beyond new quarters built on the base.  Of the 2,000-unit need identified by the study, about 1,800 to 1,900 units have either been built or are in production."  In 2006, Scott Allen and David Carlon of GAR Associates, Inc., completed a market study of the Fort Drum project.  In 2005, Scott Allen of GAR Associates, Inc. completed an appraisal and a market study of the Starwood Apartments.

The Buffalo News
January 2008