Army | Groundbreaking ceremony held for 212 new JBLM homes
By: Allison Hoy
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – A Liberty Military Housing groundbreaking ceremony March 18 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord marked the start of construction of 212 new homes – 106, four-bedroom duplexes – in the Meriwether Landing neighborhood on Lewis North.
“In January 2026, we’re looking to have the first units come online for residents to move in,” said Brian Brager, senior construction manager for LMH.
An estimated 66 homes will be built in 2026, and the entire project will take about 2 ½ years, he said.
Of the 212 units being built, 36 will be available for officers, 01 to 03, with family members, and 176 will be available for enlisted service members, E7 to E9, with family members, said Beth Wilson, Directorate of Public Works Housing Division chief.
Four-bedroom houses have the longest waiting times for all ranks on JBLM, Wilson said.
“We will not wait for all 212 to be completed,” she said. “We will assign these homes as they are delivered to us.”
Each of the units will contain 2 ½ baths, with hard-surface flooring and LED lighting throughout and quartz countertops, Brager said.
Two-car garages and fenced backyards with covered patios will also be included, and the neighborhood will be home to two parks and two playgrounds. Additionally, future residents will have “increased accessibility to the community’s amenities through a new connecting roadway within Meriwether,” said Beth Peterson, vice president of the West Army Region for LMH.
The groundbreaking ceremony was about more than just building homes, said Col. Kent Park, JBLM commander.
“It’s more about fulfilling a promise that we have made to our service members and their families in terms of the quality of life that we need to provide for them as they fulfill their mission,” Park said. “It is a community that we are building.”
A former, self-described Army brat, Rep. Marilyn Strickland also emphasized the importance of community on military installations during the ceremony, saying she remembers her neighbors and playing outside at now-Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
“The sense of community that we build when we build housing is incredibly important,” Strickland said. “As I go around the country visiting a lot of military bases, I always take great pride in the fact that when I come home here to JBLM, we do have a fantastic community on (base) and we keep getting better.”
The new homes and LMH’s renovation projects – including work on more than 900 JBLM homes over the last five years – contribute to military families’ mission readiness and morale, Peterson said.
LMH also works to facilitate a sense of community among JBLM families, hosting free events each month to help build relationships and support systems, said Philip Rizzo, LMH’s CEO.
“Ensuring the family is settled at home allows our active-duty service members to focus on their mission, training and fighting in the field here or abroad,” Rizzo said.
Park said he looks forward to building “hundreds and hundreds more houses” at JBLM.
“About 70% of our residents live off the installation, and to me, that is unfortunate,” Park said. “And I would love to bring more and more on the installation.”
LMH is looking ahead.
“We are working with our government partner and trying to look into areas that we may be short on and seeing what we could do in the future for projects,” Brager said.
To learn more about the new homes at JBLM, visit https://info.livelmh.com/meriwether.