The Los Angeles region is bidding to host a new contract procurement national headquarters for a unit of the U.S. Army that would dispense hundreds of millions of dollars to contractors and work with research universities to bring future technologies to the battlefield quickly.

The Army selected Los Angeles last month as one of 15 U.S. cities to bid for the right to host its planned Futures Command headquarters. Another cut down to four finalist cities is expected in the next few weeks, with a final decision a few weeks after that, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles.

Lieu has led a local congressional delegation in support of Los Angeles’ candidacy; the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is leading the region’s bid.

The other cities in the running: Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Minneapolis, Minn.; New York; Philadelphia; Raleigh, N.C.; San Diego; San Francisco; and Seattle.

The physical headquarters of the planned Futures Command is expected to house mostly civilian employees, with a lease of an existing office campus likely.

“The Army Futures Command headquarters would bring up to 500 jobs to the area,” Lieu said in an email to the Business Journal. “And these would be high-paying jobs in critical engineering fields. There would also be significant indirect jobs.”

The stakes are even larger when it comes to contracts and the potential for commercialization of technology, aspects of the Futures Command that could spur hundreds more indirect jobs and inject hundreds of millions of dollars annually into the economy of its host city.

The Army post would have an outsized effect on L.A.’s economy, according to Judy Kruger, director for the aerospace and advanced transportation sectors with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., which is assisting in L.A.’s bid effort.

“We would love to have any procurement office in L.A. because it’s going to drive growth for the entire region,” she said. “You will see original equipment manufacturers locate here and defense contractors already here step up their presence,” Kruger said. “What’s more, it could mean more research, development and commercialization opportunities for our local research universities in partnership with local tech companies, which could pay huge dividends down the road.”

Reorganization effort

The Futures Command headquarters is planned as part of a major reorganization at the Army, with the aim of consolidating and speeding up the process for acquiring weapons and troop support equipment and to better integrate the latest technology into the acquisitions. The new headquarters will be run by a four-star general, a sign of the importance the Army is assigning to the effort, according to published reports,

Tom Lasser, vice chair of the South Bay Aerospace Alliance, which also is assisting in the region’s bid, said that when he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army 10 to 20 years ago, “it seemed like it took an inordinate amount of time for weapons and equipment to emerge from the drawing board (and get) to the battlefield. Accelerating the technology development is the key to all this.”

U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper said in an April interview with Bloomberg that the Army is looking for locations with “access to really good civilian talent and good industry and academia expertise.” Several of the bidding cities – including Austin, Boston, Raleigh and San Francisco – are known for their technology centers and adjacent research universities.

Esper also said in the Bloomberg interview that the Army was looking for existing office space to house the procurement headquarters: “What we’re really looking at is office space, not a new installation.”

The Los Angeles area already has a military installation that’s primarily office space and serves as a contract procurement center: the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo. It houses 6,300 administrators and engineers who oversee billions of dollars in defense contracts to local aerospace firms, as well as manage satellite and other space systems.

That base has perennially been suggested as a target for closure and consolidation, but each time a vigorous local lobbying effort has helped keep it open. The South Bay Aerospace Alliance was created last year to reduce the frequent scramble period for local officials each time the base crops up as a closure target.

Tech strength

The Army set a May 10 deadline for each city bidding for the Army Futures Command headquarters to submit data on housing, transportation and the local economy. The submission for the Los Angeles area touted the region’s emerging tech prowess and longstanding reputation for graduating engineers from the area’s three principal research institutions: the California Institute of Technology, UCLA and USC.

Rep. Lieu and other members of the Southern California congressional delegation, wrote a letter to Army Secretary Esper telling him “L.A. would provide Futures Command with the perfect access to technology, talent and academia. Each year, the region’s top tier institutions…graduate the most engineers in the country and obtain millions (of dollars) in research funding. ‘Silicon Beach’…is home to nearly 500 startups and major tech companies.”

The letter also notes the region’s long history as a center for defense-related innovation, including its role in originating email and the Internet.

Site mystery

Requests for information on any specific locations Los Angeles has put forward in its bid for the Army Futures Command were steered to Garcetti’s office. A spokesman for Garcetti declined to identify what sites were in play, but offered a statement from the mayor, which said L.A. had an “incredibly talented and diverse workforce that would bring an extraordinary spirit of innovation and service to America’s national security needs.”

Others assisting in the bid effort said the focus is likely on two general locations: the Playa Vista area because of its proximity to Silicon Beach and the South Bay, which has long been the center for the region’s aerospace/defense sector.

El Segundo, which already houses the Los Angeles Air Force Base,was thought to be a leading candidate; city officials there did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The former Toyota North America headquarters campus in Torrance – now owned by Irvine developer Sares-Regis Group – also has been mentioned. But a spokeswoman for Sares-Regis said the company had not been made aware of any potential use of the site for a military tenant.