KABUL, Afghanistan — Managing real estate in a kinetic environment bears little resemblance to the work in the United States.
Yard signs, closing costs and open houses are nowhere to be seen in Afghanistan. Instead, because the Chief of Engineers has staff responsibility over all Department of the Army real estate matters in overseas areas, Kurt Reppe and his staff rely on knowledge, negotiation and hard work to ensure we possess the space necessary to support Operation Enduring Freedom.
Reppe, the chief of real estate for U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Transatlantic District North, is no battle field real estate novice. Reppe has been in theater more than five years broken up in stints at Bagram, Kandahar and Kabul. He expects to conclude this tour in December. Reppe belongs to Rock Island District in the States.
Originally from Eau Claire, Wis., Reppe guides three realty specialists at Bagram, four with TAN (currently at Qalaa House here including one Afghan translator. After Transatlantic Afghanistan District stands up this summer, he will inherit two more realty professionals to carry on the challenging mission. The team is responsible for acquiring real estate support for U.S. Coalition Forces through leasing of private property; no-cost Land Use Agreements with the host nation; no-cost permits with NATO forces. After property is acquired, real estate’s mission is to manage all contracts and to dispose of property when it’s no longer needed. Finally, real estate professionals must obtain releases from all liabilities after disposition.
Mary Casper has worked alongside Reppe for nearly a year. Originally from the Omaha District, Casper manages leased housing for Army, Navy and Air Force recruiters back there. The 10-year Corps veteran began working in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Minnesota as wards clerk.
“I took a break, raised some kids, then started working with the Corps,” Casper explained. “I worked my way up through the real estate ranks learning as I went along.”
Reppe and Casper are joined outside the “Purdy’s Pump House” sign at Qalaa House by a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who speaks exceptional English. The translator spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I learned English in school in Kabul Province, taking some courses. I was born in Kapisa Province and moved to Kabul at age two. Most of the people don’t know their exact age, and the elders don’t care about age.”
The young man still lives in the Kabul area with his family. He explained that sometimes there is a risk working for Americans, but mostly it’s comfortable.
“My family knows I work with the U.S. government. So if some other people know, some stereotype people, they will misunderstand and behave with you in a bad way. Actually, you don’t know the kind of person you deal with. The only way I can feel comfortable is if I tell people I work with a private engineering company. Only my family knows,” he said. When describing his coworkers, he was careful to explain, “To be honest, these people are good to work with. They always help me.”
When pressed to explain why he works real estate here, Reppe stated, “I enjoy this. It’s a challenge. We’re doing something different every day and seeing a positive result. Well, let’s look at it this way. When I went to Kandahar in 2009, I had to secure six or seven areas from January to April under the military construction program (MILCON), which totaled close to $500 million. We were working with the Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force, the Ministry of Defense and the U.S. government. We had a short window using MILCON dollars during the troop surge and the people were not stopping. They were coming in. And we got them all. We got them all awarded. It required four or five operating agreements and permits totaling $500 million of construction around Kandahar Air Base.”
Often the document used to close the deal is called an Accommodation Consignment Agreement (ACA). It is a no-cost land use agreement between the U.S. and Afghan governments for military purposes. This give the U.S. full use of the lands until the U.S. no longer needs the land for military purposes or requirements.
Determining ownership in Afghanistan is not always easy.
“If we’re going onto a forward operating base and it appears that we have 10 landowners, for example, to validate those ownerships all of a sudden now we have 12, 14 or 15. What they’ll do is hold a local shura out there with the governor, sub-governor, mayor, provincial governor. The village elders will bring everybody together and let them know what we’re doing in the area.” Reppe said. “Who finally decides depends on what level of leader is involved. We don’t seize land. We want to work with people.”
What happens if no one can agree or if people get angry?
Reppe continued, “One time that happened and we left, to give all the people time to think about it, to cool down. Sometimes we don’t get the land we’re seeking. In this case they were firm. We went to other alternatives which worked. We always have a plan A and a plan B. That time we had to fall back to plan B.” Reppe does not speak Dari.
His translator explained the difficulty they sometime encounter in negotiations.
“The only people we have problems with are in the outlying areas. They do not have contact information. They won’t understand the ACA. Different levels of education make it a challenge to communicate the agreement. Some people have a certain amount of land. We learn that from companies we hire to do research. When we put that into a lease, they sometimes think they have more. Some of them appreciate it, that we’re using their land as a rent or lease agreement, others think their land is worth more or that they have more land. We give fair market value for the use of lands.”
As in many business transactions, much depends on relationships. Recently the land owners from whom TAN rents for the Qalaa House compound came to visit Reppe and his team. All gentlemen were cordial and gracious in their communication. A couple told us information about the property or themselves that no one at TAN had known.
Lutfullah Rahmat explained the origin of the name “Qalaa House.” “Qalaa” means “fort,” he told us. He also stated that the building used to be the prime minister’s residence and that the prime minister once kept pigeons in a small enclosure near the main building for therapeutic reasons. Most know that Qalaa House was also the Iraqi embassy for a short time.
When he was a child, Mohammad Shokab Hakimi, owner of Patriot House, sang the Afghan national anthem for President Richard M. Nixon.
The TAN real estate office has forged a strong team that continues to serve not only American interests, but also establishes enduring friendships between many land owners and between two nations. They are the team that ‘relationships’ built.
| Date Taken: | 05.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.01.2013 10:34 |
| Story ID: | 106129 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Hometown: | EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 466 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, USACE TAN real estate team pros at relationship building, by Todd Lyman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
