RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Lieutenant Colonel Ed Landrith is the Construction Project Officer for the new California Military Department Headquarters in Rancho Cordova, and the Chamber of Commerce had the pleasure of learning about the new 238,000 sq ft facility on August 16.

The California Military Department has been administering from a large complex leased just outside of Rancho Cordova at 9800 Goethe Road, Sacramento. The California Air National Guard, California Army National Guard, California Cadet Corps, Military Reserve and other branches and duties are administered by the department, and much of it was being done from other leased facilities as well.

Landrith, a Cordova Class of ‘88 graduate, said, “The new construction has the purpose of consolidating and integrating the headquarters facility into one 30 acre lot with access to Mather Airport and proximity to the Office of Emergency Services.”

Since the economic downturn of 2007, the state had been looking for a way to compensate for the declining federal funding for military construction and ultimately reduce its own costs.

In October 2017, the construction phase begun and now 80 percent of its structural steel has been erected.

Another reason for the new facility is that the higher seismic standards required for emergency buildings and Department of Defense security standards were not being met by the previous facilities.

The new state owned facility located at 10601 Bear Hollow Drive, Rancho Cordova will feature: sustainable modern LEED certification; low water landscape; Net Zero Energy; photovoltaic energy; and emergency power generation.

For Rancho Cordova this is an important project since, according to Landrith, “The California Military Department employs many civilians and trains them not just to run projects but to run our [CMD] projects.”

When the new headquarters begins to operate in the spring of 2021, it will also provide a customer-centric layout for veterans and service members seeking to update their identification badges and other related services.

For more information on the California Military Department visit calguard.ca.gov