U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska real estate division: managing 500 real estate instruments and about 2 million acres of land.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.
• Position: CONSTRUCTION: SIDEBAR

From appraisals and land acquisitions to disposal of property under military control--the real estate division of the Alaska District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provides a full range of real estate services to the military in Alaska.

"We perform real estate actions for civil and military projects all over the state," said Tom Kretzschmar, chief of real estate division. He said the division also performs real estate activities for other federal and non-federal agencies, too.

Kretzschmar came to Anchorage in February to head the Alaska District's real estate division, but he's been with the Corps for seven years and in the real estate industry for more than 20 years.

He works with a 15-person staff that includes cartographers, appraisers and realty specialists to manage its 500 real estate instruments and about 2 million acres of land.

"On a daily basis, we manage a large volume of transactions," Kretzschmar said. "There is always some entity that needs an interest in real estate from us."

The real estate division's work includes things like negotiating easements for a breakwater project in Unalaska, granting the Alaska Railroad Corp. easements to extend rail north 80 miles through Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force base.

In Unalaska, construction crews needed easements from private property owners while building the breakwater project, Kretzschmar said. So he said he sent one of the division's real estate agents to Unalaska to negotiate an easement for the property.

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"In many ways, we're sort of like an independent real estate agency," Kretzschmar said.

The division's involvement with a piece of property can extend through its whole life cycle, he said.

"We acquire property. Manage property. And dispose of the property," Kretzschmar said.

He said the division is in the process of disposing of two parcels now. One...