Lawton’s FISTA authority preparing for new round of renovations

Members of the FISTA Development Trust Authority are preparing for new renovations at Central Plaza.

The authority approved a letter of engagement last week with Tradesman Architectural Studios, Oklahoma City, to craft design plans for 3,000 square feet of space for Dynetics’s CEMA AI. Trust authority member Mark Brace said said the group is “within a few words” of reaching agreement with that entity, slated to become another large-scale tenant working with Fort Sill and the two U.S. Army Cross-Functional Teams housed on post.

FISTA officials said in August that Cyber Electronic Magnetic Activities and Artificial Intelligence (CEMA AI) is designed to prepare the U.S. Army with addressing the increasing importance that both cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum will play in the success of unified land operations against peer and near-peer threats.

Brace said the letter of engagement with Tradesman specifies architectural engineering for a project that FISTA officials have been working on for at least a year, with design plans to identify exactly what will be built. According to that letter of agreement, designs will focus on 3,000 square feet of space within the former Sears store on the mall’s west end (the same location of FISTA 1), to be comprised of offices, reception, break room, storage, conference room, open office space and open collaboration space. The project is budgeted at $600,000, according to the letter.

Tradesman will provide project management and provide all architectural documents, design services, specifications and drawings, as well as bidding, construction administration and closeout services, under the letter’s specifications. Documentation will include development of schematic designs, to include cost estimates, and creation of final construction designs for bidding, permit and construction. Total cost of its work is estimated at $24,500.

Schematic designs are expected to take 45 days, with another 75 days estimated for completing final construction documents.

Development Trust Authority Chairman Clarence Fortney said FISTA officials were to have met with designers last week, so work can begin. Brace said Dynetics already has hired staff members for the project that will be housed in Lawton.