The U.S. Army plans to buy 10.26 acres of land in Hayden near the Coeur d'Alene Airport, where it would build a roughly 33,000-square-foot Army Reserve Center complex.

The complex, which would replace the U.S. Army Reserve's current center nearby at 1601 W. Wyoming, would provide facilities and equipment for readiness training for five Army Reserve units with a total of 150 soldiers, an environmental engineering report on the proposed project says. The report was prepared by the Boise and Lansing, Mich., offices of Denver-based CH2M Hill. Engineers with that company familiar with the project couldn't be reached for comment.

An administrative officer at the Army Reserve Center on Wyoming says he doesn't know when the proposed project would be built or how much it would cost. A similarly sized Army Reserve Center project in the northeast U.S. was valued last fall at about $15 million.

The project in Hayden would be located on the west side of Aero Drive, directly south of Unitech Composites Inc., which is on the south side of the Coeur d'Alene Airport. The vacant parcel is flanked on its east and west sides by vacant land, and lies just north of two lots used for commercial purposes.

The current Hayden reserve center on Wyoming, just east of the airport, originally was built to accommodate 60 soldiers, and is inadequate to support the training and activation of five reserve units, the engineering report says.

The proposed center would include a 24,500-square-foot training building that would house offices, classrooms, a weapons simulator, a vault, an assembly room, and a physical-fitness area, the report says. The center also would include a 7,400-square-foot maintenance shop and a 900-square-foot storage building.

The structures would be built with reinforced concrete foundations, concrete floor slabs, steel frames, brick-veneer exterior walls, and metal roofs, the report says. Additional work at the project site would include paving, fencing, and landscape improvements.

The Seattle office of the 70th Regional Readiness Command is seeking public comment this month on the economic and environmental impacts of the proposed project.

The program manager who is handling the project there was unavailable for comment.

The report also identifies an alternative, 10-acre site on the south side of Miles Avenue, about a third of a mile east of the proposed Aero Drive location, that would be adequate for a reserve center should the primary location be removed from consideration. It adds that continued operation of the reserve center at its current location "is not considered a feasible alternative."